SEVEN  HUNDRED 
ILLUSTRATIONS 


THE  LIBRARY 

OF 

THE  UNIVERSITY 
OF  CALIFORNIA 


PRESENTED  BY 

PROF.  CHARLES  A.  KOFOID  AND 
MRS.  PRUDENCE  W.  KOFOID 


HOW  COLOR  PRINTING  IS  DONE 

A  plate  is  made  for  each  of  the  three  printing  colors,  yellow,  red  and  blue,  as  explained  on  page  382. 
First,  yellow  is  printed,  then  red  on  the  yellow,  and  last,  blue  on  the  yellow  and  red  combination.  Com- 
binations of  these  three  colors  in  various  proportions  produce  all  the  other  tints  which  appear  in  the  original 
subject.  Above  are  shown  the  separate  plates  and  also  the  combined  result  of  all  three.  Extreme  care  is 
necessary  to  make  all  the  plates  register  exactly  together. 


THE  WONDER  BOOK 
OF  KNOWLEDGE 


THE    MARVELS   OF  MODERN  INDUSTRY  AND  INVENTION 

THE  INTERESTING  STORIES  OF  COMMON  THINGS 

THE  MYSTERIOUS  PROCESSES  OF  NATURE 

SIMPLY  EXPLAINED 


COMPILED    AND   EDITED 
BY 

HENRY  CHASE  HILL 

WITH   THE    CO-OPERATION    OF   EXPERTS 
REPRESENTING   EACH   INDUSTRY 


illttatratrii  tufty 
TB0  pfntograpIjH  attft  introtnga 


PHILADELPHIA 

THE  JOHN  C.  WINSTON  COMPANY 

PUBLISHERS 


COPYRIGHT,  1921 
BY  L.  T.  MYERS 

CCPYBIQHT,    1917-18 


T/1 


Preface 


This  book  is  presented  to  those,  both  young  and  old,  who  wish  to  have  a  non- 
technical account  of  the  history,  evolution  and  production  of  some  of  the  every-day 
renders  of  the  modern  industrial  age;  coupled  with  occasional  glimpses  of  the  won- 
derful object-lessons  afforded  by  nature  in  her  constructive  activities  in  the  animal, 
vegetable  and  mineral  kingdoms;  and  simple,  understandable  answers  to  the  myriad 
puzzling  questions  arising  daily  in  the  minds  of  those  for  whom  the  fascination  of 
the  "Why"  and  "How"  is  always  engrossing, 

Although  not  intended  primarily  as  a  child's  book,  the  interest-compelling  pic- 
tures and  clear,  illuminating  answers  to  the  constant  avalanche  of  questions  sug- 
gested by  the  growing  mind,  unite  in  making  far  happier  children  in  the  home  and 
brighter  children  at  school.  Parents  and  te'achers  will  also  recognize  the  opportunity 
to  watch  for  subjects  by  which  the  child's  interest  appears  to  be  more  than  ordinarily 
attracted,  and,  in  so  doing,  will  be  enabled  to  guide  the  newly-formed  tendencies  into 
the  proper  channels.  With  the  greatest  thinkers  of  the  age  advocating  vocational 
training,  and  leading  educators  everywhere  pointing  out  that  the  foundation  of  a 
practical  education  for  life  must  be  laid  in  the  home,  thoughtful  parents  will  not 
overlook  the  fact  that  a  book  which  both  entertains  and  instructs  is  of  supreme 
importance  in  the  equipment  of  their  children. 

In  the  preparation  of  this  book  its  function  has  been  considered  as  that  of  gather- 
ing up  some  of  the  multitudinous  bits  of  information  of  interest,  both  to  the  inquiring 
child  and  the  older  reader,  and  putting  them  in  shape  to  be  digested  by  the  ordinary 
searcher  after  knowledge.  The  book  is  intended,  not  for  a  few  technical  specialists, 
but  for  the  larger  number  of  men,  women  and  children  who  are  not  interested  in 
exhaustive  treatises,  but  who  are  seeking  to  gain  some  fair  idea  about  the  numberless 
every-day  subjects  that  arise  in  ordinary  conversation,  or  that  they  meet  with  in 
reading  and  about  which  they  desire  some  definite  and  satisfactory  information. 

Most  of  us  realize  that  we  live  in  a  world  of  wonders  and  we  recognize  progress 
in  industries  with  which  we  come  in  personal  contact,  but  the  daily  routine  of  our 
lives  is  ordinarily  so  restricted  by  circumstances  that  many  of  us  fail  to  follow  works 
which  do  not  come  within  our  own  experience  or  see  beyond  the  horizon  of  our  own 
specific  paths. 

The  workman  who  tends  the  vulcanizer  hi  the  rubber  factory  has  come  to  take 
his  work  as  a  matter  of  course;  the  man  who  assembles  a  watch,  or  a  camera,  is  not 
apt  to  appreciate  the  fact  that  there  have  been  marvelous  developments  in  his  line 
of  manufacturing;  the  operator  of  a  shoe  machine,  or  of  an  elevator,  does  not  see 
anything  startling  or  absorbing  in  the  work — and  so  we  find  it  almost  throughout 
the  entire  list  of  industries. 

The  tendency  of  the  seemingly  almost  imperceptible  movement  marking  onward 
development  in  the  work  that  is  familiar  is  to  dull  the  mind  toward  opportunities  for 


PREFACE 


improvement  in  the  accustomed  task.  With  the  exception  of  the  man  who  is  at 
times  impressed  with  the  remarkable  advances  made  in  some  strikingly  spectacular 
industry,  because  such  knowledge  comes  to  him  suddenly,  the  average  workman  is 
often  too  much  inclined  to  regard  himself  as  a  machine,  and  performs  his  duties  more 
or  less  automatically,  without  attempting  to  exercise  imagination  or  those  powers  of 
adaptation  upon  which  all  progress  has  been  builded. 

A  single  volume  is  of  necessity  too  limited  a  space  for  anything  approximating 
a  complete  record  of  the  vast  progress  which  has  been  made  in  American  Industry. 
Consequently  it  has  only  been  possible  to  select  the  more  characteristic  features  of 
the  twentieth  century  and  point  out  the  strides  by  which  some  of  the  prominent 
industries  have  advanced  to  their  present  proportions.  If  the  hitherto  undisputed 
maxim  that  "the  more  the  individual  knows  the  more  he  is  worth  to  himself  and  his 
associates"  still  prevails,  the  chronicling  of  the  developments  in  some  fields  should 
stimulate  thought  and  experiment  toward  the  adaptation  of  similar  methods  in 
others.  It  is  to  that  end  that  authorities  in  each  of  the  industries  presented  have 
co-operated  in  the  compilation  of  this  interesting  and  instructive  volume. 

THE  EDITOR. 


Table  of  Contents 


PAGE 
THE   STORY   OF  THE   SUBMARINE 9 

Origin  of  Submarine  Navigation,  9.  The  American  Types,  10.  Twentieth  Century  Submarines,  11. 
Engine  Power,  12.  The  Periscope,  13.  Voyage  of  the  "Deutschland,"  14.  Submarine  Dredging,  15. 

THE  STORY  OF  THE  PANAMA  CAN£L 17 

The  United  States  to  the  Rescue,  17.  The  Canal  and  the  Navy,  20.  The  Great  Canal,  20.  The 
Hydroelectric  Station,  20.  Gigantic  Obstacles,  30.  Gatun  Dam,  33.  Meeting  all  Emergencies,  33. 
A  Battle  Won,  36. 

What  is  a  Geyser?  40.  What  Kind  of  Dogs  are  Prairie-Dogs?  42.  What  is  Spontaneous  Combus- 
tion? 42. 

THE   STORY  IN  THE  TALKING  MACHINE 43 

The  Early  Machines,  43.  Invention  of  the  Spring  Motor,  47.  Change  from  Cylinder  to  Disc,  47. 
Making  the  Record,  49. 

What  are  Petrified  Forests?  49.     What  Animals  are  the  Best  Architects?  51. 

THE   STORY  OF  THE  MOTORCYCLE 52 

Austin's  Steam  Velocipede,  52.  Motor-paced  Racing,  55.  First  Practical  Machine,  54.  Modern 
Refinements,  57.  Side  Cars  and  Commercial  Bodies,  58. 

How  is  the  Weather  Man  Able  to  Predict  Tomorrow's  Weather?  58.  How  does  a  Siren  Fog  Horn 
Blow?  60. 

THE   STORY  IN  A  WATCH 61 

The  Standard  of  Time,  61.  Candles  as  Time-Keepers,  63.  Galileo's  Pendulum,  63.  Balance 
Wheel  *s  a  Pendulum,  65.  The  Time  Train,  65.  How  a  Watch  Works,  67.  What  Causes  Variation 
in  Watches,  71. 

How  does  a  Monorail  Gyroscope  Railway  Operate?  72.  Why  are  Finger-prints  used  for  Identifi- 
cation? 74. 

THE  STORY  IN  A  RIFLE 75 

The  Earliest  Hunters,  75.  The  Use  of  Slings,  77.  A  Fortunate  Accident;  77.  As  to  Arrows,  81. 
A  Shooting  Machine,  81.  And  Now  for  Chemistry,  81.  Playing  with  Fire,  83.  The  Coming  of 
the  Matchlock,  83.  Caps  and  Breech-Loaders,  85.  From  Henry  VIII  to  Cartridges,  85.  The 
Beginning  of  Precision  in  Mechanics,  87.  Making  Barrels,  92.  Taking  off  2/1000  of  an  Inch,  92. 
The  Making  of  Ammunition  Today,  94.  Handling  Deadly  Explosives,  96.  Extreme  Precautions,  96. 

How  does  an  Artesian  Well  Keep  up  its  Supply  of  Water?  96.    Where  do  Dates  come  from?  97. 

THE  STORY  OF  RUBBER 98 

How  was  Rubber  First  Used?  98.  What  is  a  Rubber  Camp  Like?  100.  How  is  Rubber  Gathered 
by  the  Natives?  103.  How  is  Rubber  Smoked?  104.  How  was  Vulcanizing  Discovered?  105. 
How  did  Rubber  Growing  Spread  to  Other  Places?  108.  How  is  Rubber  Cured  on  Modern  Planta- 
tions? 110.  How  is  Crude  Rubber  Received  Here?  112.  How  is  Rubber  Prepared  for  Use?  112. 
How  are  Rubber  Shoes  Made?  116.  How  are  Automobile  Tires  Made?  119. 

How  did  the  Expression  "  Before  you  can  say  Jack  Robinson  "  Originate?  119.  What  is  an  Aerial 
Railway  Like?  119.  Why  are  they  called  Newspapers?  121.  How  did  the  C«oking  of  Food  Originate? 
121.  How  Far  away  is  the  Sky-Line?  121. 

(3) 


TABLE  OF  CONTENTS 


PAGE 

THE  STORY  OF  ROPE 122 

Civilized  Rope  Makers,  122.  Hand  Spinning,  124.  Machine-made  Ropes,  128.  American  Hemp, 
128.  Manila  and  Sisal  Fibers,  130.  Wire  Ropes,  132.  Pine  Tar  for  Ropes,  134.  Why  does  Rope 
Cling  Together?  136.  What  is  Rope  Used  for?  136. 

How  did  the  Expression  "  A-l  "  Originate?  136.  How  has  Man  Helped  Nature  give  us  Apples? 
136.  What  kind  of  a  Crab  Climbs  Trees?  138.  How  are  Files  Made?  138. 

THE  STORY  OF  SELF-LOADING  PISTOLS 130 

Colt  Pistols,  139.     Machine  Guns,  145. 

How  does  the  Poisonous  Tarantula  Live?  146.  How  do  the  Indians  Live  Now?  146.  How  does  the 
Beach  get  its  Sand?  149.  How  did  Nodding  the  Head  Up  and  Down  Come  to  Mean  "  Yes  "?  149. 
Why  do  We  Call  a  Man  "  a  Benedict "  When'He  Marries?  149. 

THE  STORY  IN  FIRECRACKERS  AND   SKY-ROCKETS 150 

The  Need  for  Noisemakers,  150.  Chinese  Firecrackers,  150.  Popular  ever  since  the  Invention  of 
Gunpowder,  154.  Beautiful  Displays,  158. 

What  makes  a  Chimney  Smoke?  158.  What  are  Dry  Docks  Like?  161.  Why  does  a  Lightning 
Bug  Light  Her  Light?  161. 

THE  STORY  IN  THE  MAKING   OF  A  PICTURE 162 

The  Image  is  Upsidedown,  162.  Effect  of  Light  on  the  Film,  163.  Early  Photographic  Efforts,  164. 
Modern  Photography,  168. 

How  Deep  is  the  Deepest  Part  of  the  Ocean?  169.  Why  do  We  say  "  Get  the  Sack  "?  169.  Why 
do  We  call  them  X-Rays?  169.  How  did  the  Term  "  Yankee  "  Originate?  171.  Why  do  We  say 
"  Kick  the  Bucket  "?  171.  When  does  a  Tortoise  move  Quickly?  171. 

THE  STORY  IN  A  NEWSPAPER 172 

Gutenberg's  Press  in'*1450,ir172.  "  Cylinder  Presses,  173.  Curved  Plates,  175.  Printing,  Folding 
and  Counting  216,000  Papers  an  Hour,  175.  Color  Printing,  180. 

What  do  We  Mean  by  the  "  Flying  Dutchman  "?  180.  Why  does  a  Duck's  Back  Shed  Water?  180. 
Why  doesn't  the  Sky  ever  Fall  Down?  180.  How  are  Sand-Dunes  Formed?  180.  What  do  We  Mear 
by  an  Eclipse?  181.  What  are  Dreams?  182.  What  makes  Our  Teeth  Chatter?  182. 

THE  STORY  IN  A  HONEY  COMB 183 

Sixty  Thousand  Bees  in  a  Hive,  183.     Modern  Bee-Keeping,  187.    Profitable  Anywhere,  193. 

Where  do  Figs  Come  from?  199.  What  are  Fighting  Fish?  199.  How  is  the  Exact  Color  of  the 
Sky  Determined?  199.  What  is  a  Divining  Rod?  199. 

THE  STORY  OF  ELECTRICITY  IN  THE  HOME 200 

A  Modern  Aladdin's  Lamp,  200.  Electric  Hot  Irons  the  First  Appliances,  201.  How  They  are 
Made,  202.  Electric  Cooking  Appliances,  205.  Electric  Toaster,  206.  Electric  Coffee  Percolator, 
206.  Baking  and  Roasting,  210.  Vacuum  Cleaners,  212. 

Why  is  there  Always  a  Soft  Spot  in  a  Cocoanut  Shell?  214.  How  does  a  Gasoline  Motor  Run  an 
Electric  Street  Car?  214.  How  do  Carrier  Pigeons  Carry  Messages?  216.  What  Family  has  Over 
9,000,000  Members?  216. 

THE  STORY  IN  THE  TELEPHONE 217 

Invention,  217.  Essential  Factor  in  American  Life,  218.  America  Leads  in  Telephone  Growth, 
220.  American  Telephone  Practice  Superior,  222.  The  First  Transcontinental  Line,  225.  Wire- 
less Speech  Transmission,  226.  The  Mobilization  of  Communication,  228. 

Why  do  they  Call  Them  "  Fiddler-Crabs  "?  229.  How  Far  can  a  Powerful  Searchlight  Send  its 
Rays?  229.  What  Started  the  Habit  of  Touching  Glasses  Before  Drinking?  23 1 .  Why  are  Windows 
Broken  by  Explosions?  231.  What  does  the  Expression  "  Showine  the  White  Feather  "  come 
from?  231 


TABLE  OF  CONTENTS 


PAGE 

THE   STORY  IN  ELEVATORS  AND   ESCALATORS 232 

From  Novelty  to  Necessity,  232.  The  Escalator,  235.  The  Cleat  Escalator,  239.  The  Moving 
Platform,  239. 

What  Happens  when  Animals  Hibernate?  241.  How  do  Peanuts  get  in  the  Ground?  241.  How 
did  Your  State  get  its  Name?  243. 

THE   STORY   OF  COAL  MINING .  244 

The  World  Depends  on  Coal,  244.  Dangers  of  Mining,  244.  How  Coal  Grew,  247.  The  Vast 
Quantities  Produced,  253. 

How  can  We  Hear  through  the  Walls  of  a  Room?  251.  What  is  a  Diesel  Engine  Like?  252.  What 
does  the  Sheep-grower  get  for  the  Wool  hi  a  Suit  of  Clothes?  252. 

THE  STORY  IN  A  SILVER  TEASPOON 253 

The  Spoon  is  Older  than  History,  253.  Development  of  Various  Shapes,  254.  Plating  Re-Dis- 
covered, 256.  Electro-plating,  257.  Stages  in  Manufacture,  258.  Evolution  of  a  Knife,  259. 

How  do  Chimes  Strike  the  Hour?  260.  How  is  Electricity  Brought  into  a  House?  262.  What  was 
the  Origin  of  Masonic  Signs?  262.  What  is  a  Dictograph?  262. 

STORY  OF  THE  WIRELESS  TELEGRAPH 263 

Stretching  a  Dog,  263.     Marconi's  Method,  263.     Tuning  the  Instruments,  264.     Interferences,  265. 

What  is  Forestry  Work?  267.  How  did  the  Fashion  of  Wearing  Cravats  Commence?  270.  How 
does  the  Gas  Meter  Measure  Your  Gas?  270.  What  is  a  Game  Preserve?  270. 

THE  STORY  OF  THE  BUILDING  OF  A  SILO 271 

What  is  a  Silo?  271.  The  First  Silo,  271.  What  is  put  in  a  Silo?  271.  Elements  of  Success  or 
Failure,  271. 

THE   STORY  OF  THE  ADVANCE   OF  ELECTRICITY 273 

The  First  Commercial  Central  Station,  273.  Edison  and  the  Electric  Light,  273.'  Electricity  a 
Living  Factor,  279.  In  the  Printing  Trade,  279.  Construction,  279.  Loft  Manufacturing,  281. 
Electric  Heating,  281.  Electricity  and  Safety,  281.  Electricity  in  Medicine,  281.  Electric 
Vehicles,  282.  Electricity  and  the  Home,  282.  Decreased  Cost  of  Electricity,  285. 

How  is  Die- Sinking  Done?  285. 

THE   STORY  IN  THE  MAKING   OF  A  MAGAZINE 286 

Printing  in  Millions,  286.     Color  Printing,  289. 
How  Did  the  Ringing  of  Curfew  Originate?  289. 

THE   STORY  OF  AMERICA'S  FIRST  HORSELESS   CARRIAGE 290 

The  Problems  of  Weight  and  Vibration,  290.    The  First  Demonstration,  290. 

THE   STORY  IN  A  SAUSAGE 292 

The  First  "Roast  Pig,"  292.  Smoking  Ham,  292.  Salt  Pork,  293.  The  Era  of  Refrigeration,  295. 
An  Up-to-date  Packing  Plant,  295.  Dressing  Meat,  298.  By-Products,  298. 

Why  do  We  call  them  "  Dog  Days?  "  301.  How  is  a  Five  Dollar  Gold  Piece  Made?  303.  How 
does  a  Bird  Fly?  303. 

THE   STORY   OF  THE  BIG  REDWOOD  TREES 304 

Long  Life  of  the  Great  Trees,  304.  Valuable  Qualities  of  the  Redwood,  304.  Fire  Retardance,  306. 
Magnificent  Tones  for  Decoration,  306. 

How  did  the  Expression  "  Forlorn  Hope  "  Originate?  306.  Why  is  "  Wall  Street  "  known  Around 
the  World?  308.  What  makes  a  Stick  Seem  To  Bend  in  Water?  308.  What  causes  a  Lump  in  a 
Person's  Throat?  308.  How  are  We  Able  to  Hear  through  Speaking  Tubes?  308.  Why  do  We 
Always  Shak*  Hands  with  our  Right  Hand?  308. 


6    TABLE  OF  CONTENTS 

f  PAGE 

THE  STORY  IN  A  BILLIARD  TABLE 309 

An  Ancient  Game,  309.  Modern  Manufacture,  311.  The  Cue  is  a  work  of  Art,  314.  The  Finest 
Ivory  for  Balls,  314. 

What  is  the  Hottest  Place  in  the  United  States?  315.  What  are  White  Blackberries  Like  ?  317. 
Why  do  They  Have  a  Dog- Watch  on  Shipboard?  317.  How  Much  Gold  has  a  14-Carat  Ring?  317- 
What  is  an  Electro  Magnet?  317. 

THE   STORY  IN  A  PIN 318 

Once  a  Luxury  of  the  Wealthy,  318.     Formerly  made  in  Parts,  319.     Making  25,000,000  Pins  a 

Year,  321. 

How  are  Glaciers  Formed?  324.    How  Large  are  Molecules?  324. 

PICTORIAL  STORY  OF  THE  FISHING  INDUSTRY 325 

Episodes  in  the  Game,  325.  Modern  Fishing  Vessels,  326.  The  Trawl,  327o  Drawing  the  Net. 
328.  Fish  Curing,  329.  Preparing  for  Market,  330. 

THE  STORY  IN  A  BOX  OF  CALIFORNIA  ORANGES 331 

Picked  with  Gloves,  331.     Grading,  331.     Shipped  in  Refrigerators,  333. 

What  Kind  of  Steel  Knives  do  not  Stain  or  Rust?  333.  Why  is  it  Necessary  to  Keep  Quiet  when 
Fishing?  333.  First  Apartment  Houses  in  this  Country,  336.  Why  do  we  Call  32°  above  Zero 
Freezing?  336.  How  is  Fresco  Painting  Done?  336. 

THE  STORY  OF  A  PIECE  OF  CHEWING  GUM 337 

Juice  of  the  Chicle  Tree,  337.     Treatment  in  the  Factory,  342. 

Where  did  the  Ferris  Wheel  get  its  Name?  342.  What  is  Done  to  Keep  Railroad  Rails  from]  Break- 
ing? 342.  How  does  a  "  Master  Clock  "  Control  others  by  Electricity?  342. 

THE  STORY  OF  THE  CALCULATING  MACHINE 345 

How  did  Men  Learn  to  Count?  345.  The  Firsc  Adding  Machine,  345.  The  Slide  Rule  Principle, 
348.  The  "Difference  Engine,"  348.  Present-Day  Models,  349.  The  Largest  Adding  Machine, 
354.  How  are  Adding  Machines  Used?  355. 

Where  does  Ermine  Come  from?  356  What  is  the  Principle  of  "  Foreign  Exchange?  "  356. 
What  do  We  Mean  by  "  The  Old  Moon  in  the  New  Moon's  Arms  "?  356. 

THE  STORY  IN  A  BOWLING  ALLEY 357 

Bowling  Green,  New  York  City,  357.     How  the  Alley  is  Built,  358.     Composition  Balls,  361. 

How  are  Artificial  Precious  Stones  Made?  361.  What  is  a  Mexican  Bull-Fight  Like?  363.  What 
is  the  Difference  between  "  Alternating  "  and  "  Direct "  Current?  363.  What  was  the  "  Court 
of  Love  "?  363. 

THE  STORY  OF  THE  ADDRESSOGRAPH 364 

Birth  of  Mechanical  Addressing,  364.  The  First  Addressograph,  364.  Greater  Speed,  366.  A 
Card  Index  that  Addresses  Itself,  367. 

What  is  Dry  Farming?  372.  What  is  a  Drying  Machine  Like?  372.  How  does  the  New  York  Stock 
Exchange  Operate?  374.  How  did  the  term  "  Cowboys  "  Originate?  374. 

THE  STORY  IN  A  CHEMICAL  FIRE  EXTINGUISHER 375 

Smothering  Fire  with  a  Gas  Blanket,  375.     The  Soda  and  Acid  Extinguisher,  376. 

How  is  Gold  Leaf  Made?  377.  What  is  the  Natural  Color  of  Goldfish?  377.  When  was  "  Liquid 
Fire"  first  used  in  Warfare?  377.  How  did  the  Greyhound  get  his  Name?  377.  Why  is  It  Called 
"Battery  Park  "?  379.  How  do  we  Know  that  the  Earth  is  Round?  379.  What  were  "Ducking 
Stools?"  379. 


TABLE  OF  CONTENTS 


PAGE 

THE  STORY  IN  PHOTO-ENGRAVING . .  380 

Pictures  are  the  Universal  Language,  380.  What  a  Halftone  is,  380.  Line  Engravings,  381.  Color 
Engraving,  382. 

Where  are  Milk-Pails  Filled  from  Trees?  383.  How  did  the  Wearing  of  a  Crown  Originate?  384. 
Why  do  Lobsters  change  Color?  384.  How  do  Fishes  Swim?  384.  Where  do  Peavls  Come  from? 
385.  What  is  Cork?  385. 

THE  STORY  IN  A  GIANT  CANNON 386 

Origin  of  the  Cannon,  386.  Modern  Cannon,  392.  How  Cannon  are  Now  Made,  393.  Built-Up 
and  Wire- Wound  Guns,  394.  Feats  of  Modern  Guns,  406. 

What  is  a  Deep-Sea  Diver's  Dress  Like?  411.  Why  do  We  Smile  when  We  are  Pleased?  412. 
Why  do  Some  of  Us  have  Freckles?  412. 

PICTORIAL  STORY  OF  THE  STEEL  INDUSTRY 413 

Mining  Ore,  413.  Open-Hearth  Furnaces,  416.  Blast  Furnaces,  417.  A  15,000  Ton  Forge,  418. 
Oil-Tempering,  420.  Bending' Armor  Plate,  422.  Largest  Steel  Casting  in  the  World,  424.  Cast- 
ing Steel,  431.  Rolling  Rails,  432. 

What  do  We  Mean  by  "  Deviation  of  the  Compass?  "  435. 

THE  STORY  IN  THE  MAKING  OF  A  PAIR  OF  SHOES 436 

Shoemaking  by  Machine,  436.  Cross-Section  of  a  Shoe,  437.  Lasting  Machine,  440.  Details  of 
the  Process,  442.  Evolution  of  a  Shoe,  447. 

What  is  Standard  Gold?  448.  What  are  Cyclones?  450.  What  Metals  can  be  Drawn  into  Wire 
Best?  450.  How  are  Cocoanuts  Used  to  Help  our  Warships?  450.  How  did  the  Dollar  Sign 
Originate?  450. 

PICTORIAL  STORY  OF  FIRE  APPARATUS 451 

Aerial  Truck,  451.     Motor  Fire  Engine,  451.     Old-time  Apparatus,  452.     Chemical  Engine,  455. 

STORY  OF  THE  TAKING   OF  FOOD  FROM  THE  AIR 458 

Nitrogen  and  Oxygen  in  the  Air,  458.  Fixation  of  Nitrogen,  459.  Liquid  Air,  460.  Fertilizer,  461. 
Ammonia,  466. 

What  is  a  Drawbridge  Like  Today?  466. 

THE  STORY  OF  A  DEEP-SEA  MONSTER 468 

A  Thirty-nine  Hour  Battle,  468.  Five  Harpoons  and  151  Bullets  needed,  468.  An  Unknown 
Leviathan,  470. 

What  is  an  Armored  Railway  Car  Like?  470.     What  is  an  Electric  Eel?  472. 

THE  STORY   OF   SALT 473 

Natural  Salt,  473.     The  Polish  Mines,  474.     Refining,  476. 

Why  do  We  Call  it  "  Denatured  Alcohol  "?  478.  What  is  the  Difference  between  a  Cruiser  and  a 
Battleship?  478. 

THE   STORY   OF  THE  GROWTH  OF  THE  MOTOR  TRUCK 481 

Practically  Developed  since  1905,  481.     Cheaper  Transportation,  489. 

What  is  a  Diving  Bell?  489.  How  are  Harbors  Dredged  Out?  491.  How  is  a  Razor  Blade  Made?  491 

THE  STORY   OF  THE  TUNNELS   UNDER  THE  HUDSON  RIVER 492 

Bold  Engineering,  492.  40,000  Men,  492.  How  the  Tunneling  Shield  Works,  494.  Air  Pressure, 
496.  Extraordinary  Adventures  under  the  River,  501. 

What  Causes  Floating  Islands?  504. 


TABLE  OF  CONTENTS 


PAGE 

PICTORIAL  STORY  OF  THE  AIRSHIP 505 

Well-known  Aviators,  £05.  Military  Monoplane,  506.  NC-4,  First  Plane  to  Cross  the  Atlantic, 
507.  Vickers-Vimy,  First  Flier  to  make  Non-Stop  Atlantic  Flight,  508.  Chart  of  Transatlantic 
Fliers,  509.  The  Wright  Brothers,  510.  British  Transatlantic  Dirigible,  R-34,  511.  Examples  of 
Military  Uses,  512. 

THE  STORY  OF  AN  AUTOMOBILE  FACTORY 518 

A  half-million  Cars  a  year,  518.  Overhead  Cranes  Cut  Costs,  520.  Safety  First,  521.  One  thing 
at  a  Time,  524.  Quick  Assembling,  526.  The  Body  Chute,  530.  Motion  Picture  Advertising,  537 

How  do  Big  Buildings  get  their  Granite?  539. 

RAILROAD   SCENES  FROM   SHOP  AND   ROAD 541 

All  Steel  Train,  541.  Electric  Train,  542.  Train  of  120  Cars,  543.  An  Observation  Car,  544. 
Electric  Baggage  Truck,  545.  Terminal  Stations,  546.  Paint  Drying  Oven,  547.  Locomotive 
Building,  548.  Types  of  Locomotives,  550. 

THE  STORY  OF  AN  UP-TO-DATE  FARM 556 

Luxuries  of  Farm  Life,  556.  Plenty  of  Food,  557.  Reaping  Hook,  558.  The  Cradle,  559.  Early 
Attempts  to  Harvest  with  Machines,  561.  The  First  Successful  Reaper,  563.  Development  of 
the  Reaper,  564.  The  Self-Binder,  568.  The  Twine  Binder,  570.  Other  Machines  Follow,  574. 

What  Causes  an  Echo?  574. 

THE   STORY   OF  THE  MOTION-PICTURE  PROJECTING   MACHINE...  575 

Spectacular  Rise  of  Motion  Pictures,  575.  How  the  Projector  Operates,  578.  Varied  Uses  of  the 
Pictures,  579. 

THE  STORY  OF  LEATHER 580 

Tanning,  580.     Oiling,  582.     Finishing  Coats,  583.     Currying,  583. 

What  is  a  "  Glass  Snake?     583. 

THE  STORY  IN  DIAMOND-CUTTING 584 

Where  Diamonds  Come  from,  584.  Famous  Diamonds,  585.  Methods  of  Cutting,  585.  Defects 
in  Diamonds,  586.  Brilliancy,  587. 

Why  do  We  get  Hungry?  588. 

THE  STORY  IN  THE  MODERN  LIFTING  MAGNET.    589 

What  a  Magnet  is,  589.     How  an  Electric  Magnet  Works,  590.     Will  Lift  30  Tons,  592. 

Why  is  the  Thistle  the  Emblem  of  Scotland?  593.  How  are  Animals  Identified  on  Cattle  Ranges? 
594.  How  is  Glue  Made?  594.  Why  does  a  Hot  Dish  Crack  if  we  put  Ice  Cream  in  It?  594. 

ALPHABETICAL  INDEX  OF  TITLES  AND   SUBJECTS 595 

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS..  .  607 


The  Story  of  the  Submarine* 


Origin  of  Submarine  Navigation. 

The  history  of  invention  has  no  chapter  more  interesting  than  that  of  sailing 
under  the  ocean's  waves.  The  navigation  of  the  air  approaches  it  in  character, 
but  does  not  present  the  vital  problems  of  undersea  travel.  Both  these  new  fields 
of  navigation  have  been  notably  developed  within  recent  years,  largely  as  a  result 
of  the  great  European  war.  It  is  the  story  of  sailing  in  the  depths  beneath  the  ocean's 
surface  with  which  we  here  propose  to  deal.  The  problem  was  settled  easily  enough 


A  SUBMARINE  ABOUT  TO  SUBMERGE 

for  his  purpose  by  Jules  Verne,  in  his  "Twenty  Thousand  Leagues  Under  the  Sea." 
But  that  was  pure  fiction  without  scientific  value.  It  is  with  fact,  not  fiction,  that 
we  are  here  concerned. 

The  story  takes  us  back  three  hundred  years,  to  the  reign  of  James  I,  of  England, 
when  a  crude  submarine  boat  was  built,  to  be  moved  by  oars,  but  one  of  no  value 
other  than  as  a  curiosity.  At  a  later  date  a  man  named  Day  built  a  similar  boat, 
wagering  that  he  would  go  down  one  hundred  yards  and  remain  there  twenty-four 
hours.  So  far  as  is  known,  he  still  remains  there,  winning  the  wager  which  he  has 
not  come  up  to  claim. 

Other  such  boats  were  constructed  at  intervals,  but  the  first  undersea  boat  of 
any  historical  importance  was  the  "  American  Turtle,"  built  by  a  Yankee  named 
David  Bushnell  during  the  time  that  the  British  held  New  York  in  the  Revolutionary 
War.  He  sought  to  blow  up  the  British  frigate  "Eagle"  with  the  aid  of  a  torpedo 

*  Illustrations  by  courtesy  of  the  Lake  Torpedo  Boat  Co.,  unless  otherwise  indicated. 

(9) 


10 THE  STORY  OF  THE  SUBMARINE 

and  nearly  succeeded  in  doing  so,  seriously  scaring  the  British  shippers  by    the 
explosion  of  his  torpedo. 

The  next  to  become  active  in  this  line  of  discovery  was  Robert  Fulton,  the 
inventor  of  the  first  practical  steamboat.  He,  like  Bushnell,  was  an  American, 
but  his  early  experiments  were  in  France,  where  Napoleon  patronized  him.  With 
his  boat,  the  "  Nautilus,"  he  made  numerous  descents,  going  down  twenty-five  feet 
in  the  harbor  of  Brest  and  remaining  there  an  hour.  He  said  that  he  could  build 
a  submarine  that  could  swim  under  the  water  and  destroy  any  war  vessel  afloat. 
But  the  French  Admiralty  refused  to  sustain  him,  one  old  admiral  saying,  "  Thank 
God,  France  still  fights  her  battles  on  the  surface,  not  beneath  it." 

Fulton  finally  went  to  England  and  there  built  a  boat  with  which  he  attached  a 
torpedo  to  a  condemned  brig,  set  aside  for  that  purpose.  The  brig  was  blown  up 
in  the  presence  of  an  immense  throng,  and  Fulton  finally  sold  his  invention  to  the 
British  government  for  $75,000.  Nothing  further  came  of  it. 

The  submarine  next  came  into  practical  view  during  the  American  Civil  War, 
when  the  Confederate  government  built  several  such  vessels,  known  usually  as 
" Davids"  from  their  inventor.  Now,  for  the  first  time,  did  such  a  craft  demonstrate 
its  powers.  On  the  night  of  February  17, 1864,  one  of  the  "  Davids,"  the  "Hunley," 
blew  up  the  steamship  "Housatonic"  in  Charleston  harbor.  The  wave  caused  by 
the  explosion  swamped  the  submarine  and  it  and  its  crew  found  a  watery  grave. 

Other  submarines  were  built  and  experimented  with,  not  only  in  the  United 
States  but  in  European  countries.  One  of  the  later  inventors  was  an  Irish- American 
named  John  P.  Holland,  who, in  1876,  built  a  submarine  called  the  "Fenian  Ram." 
The  "Ram"  collapsed  with  the  collapse  of  the  Fenian  movement.  Other  boats 
were  built  and  tried,  but  the  successful  period  of  the  submarine  was  deferred  until 
after  1893,  when  the  United  States  Congress  appropriated  $200,000  to  encourage 
such  an  enterprise  and  invited  inventors  to  submit  designs.  This,  and  a  similar 
movement  in  France,  formed  the  first  official  recognition  of  the  value  of  vessels  of 
this  class. 

The  prize  offered  by  Congress  brought  out  three  designs,  one  by  Mr.  Holland, 
the  "Ram"  inventor,  one  by  George  C.  Barker,  and  a  third  by  Simon  Lake.  The 
names  of  Holland  and  Lake  have  since  been  closely  associated  with  the  history  of 
the  submarine.  Mr.  Holland's  device  secured  approval  and  in  1894  he  received  a 
contract  to  build  a  submarine  vessel.  This,  named  the  "Plunger,"  was  begun  in 
1895,  but  was  finally  abandoned  and  a  vessel  of  different  type,  the  "Holland,"  was 
built  in  its  place.  It  was  accepted  by  the  government  in  1900.  A  number  of  others 
similar  to  the  "Holland"  were  subsequently  built. 

The  American  Types. 

The  type  of  these  vessels  was  what  became  known  as  the  "diving."  They 
were  controlled  by  a  rudder  placed  at  the  stern  of  the  vessel  and  acting  in  both  a 
horizontal  and  a  vertical  direction,  the  force  of  the  screw  propeller  driving  the  boat 
forward  in  the  direction  desired.  In  1904  the  navy  of  the  United  States  possessed 
eight  Holland  boats  and  there  were  also  a  number  of  them  in  the  British  navy. 

Mr.  Lake's  design,  offered  in  1893  but  not  accepted,  had  as  its  novel  feature 
a  plan  by  which  a  door  could  be  opened  in  the  bottom  of  the  ship 'and  the  crew  leave 
and  enter  it  in  diving  suits,  the  water  being  kept  out  by  the  force  of  compressed  air. 
To  maintain  the  vessel  on  an  even  keel  he  introduced  four  vanes,  called  "hydro- 
planes," for  regulating  the  depth  of  descent.  By  aid  of  these  and  the  horizontal 
rudder  it  was  found  that  the  vessel  would  run  for  hours  at  a  constant  depth  and  on 
a  level  keel.  There  were  other  devices  for  diving  or  rising  to  the  surface. 

In  1901  Mr.  Lake  built  a  large  vessel  of  this  type  which  was  sold  to  the  Russian 
government  and  was  in  commission  at  Vladivostock  during  the  Russian-Japanese 


THE  STORY  OF  THE  SUBMARINE 


11 


Wai.  He  afterwards  received  orders  from  this  and  other  governments  for  a  number 
of  vessels  of  the  even-keel  type,  and  his  principles  of  control  have  since  been  generally 
adopted  as  the  safest  and  most  reliable  controlling  agency  for  under-water  craft. 

We  have  not  in  the  above  brief  statement  described  all  the  efforts  to  invent  a 
satisfactory  under-water  boat.  In  several  of  the  nations  of  Europe  experiments, 
more  or  less  available,  had  been  tried,  but  the  most  practical  results  were  achieved 
by  the  American  inventors,  Bushnell,  Fulton,  Davy,  Holland  and  Lake.  It  will 
suffice  here  to  say  that  the  most  successful  of  submarines  were  those  constructed 
by  Holland  and  Lake.  An  important  addition  was  made  in  1901  in  a  French  boat, 
the  "  Morse,"  built  at  Cherbourg.  The  difficulty  of  navigators  telling  where  they 
were  when  under  water,  and  of  changing  their  course  safely  without  coming  to  the 
surface  to  reconnoitre,  was  in  a  large  measure  overcome  by  the  addition  of  a  "peri- 


A  MINE-PLANTING  SUBMARINE  DESIGNED  IN  BERLIN  BY  SIMON  LAKE  IN  1895  FOR  THE 

RUSSIAN  GOVERNMENT 

scope."  This,  rising  above  the  water,  and  provided  with  reflecting  lenses,  enabled 
the  steersman  to  discover  the  surface  conditions  and  see  any  near  vessel  or  other 
object.  The  " Morse"  was  able  to  sink  in  seventy  seconds  and  her  crew  could  remain 
under  water  for  sixteen  hours  without  strain. 

Twentieth  Century  Submarines. 

We  have  given  an  epitome  of  the  development  of  the  submarine  vessel  up  to 
the  opening  of  the  twentieth  century.  It  had  now  reached  a  successful  status  of 
achievement  and  during  the  early  years  of  that  century  was  to  display  a  remark 
able  progress.  Holland  and  Lake  may  be  looked  upon  as  the  parents  of  the  modern 
development  of  the  submersible  boat,  their  designs  being  at  the  base  of  the  great 
European  progress. 

France  took  up  the  work  actively,  its  most  successful  early  vessel  being  the 
"Narval,"  built  in  1899.  This  was  118  feet  long  by  8  feet  3  inches  beam,  106  tons 
surface  and  168  submerged  displacement.  She  was  a  double-deck  vessel  controlled 
by  Lake  hydroplanes,  and  had  installed  steam  power  for  surface  travel  and  electric 
power  for  undersea  work.  The  French  at  this  time  kept  their  methods  secret,  and 
no  useful  type  had  been  developed  in  England,  the  result  being  that  a  plant  was 


12 


THE  STORY  OF  THE  SUBMARINE 


provided  for  the  building  of  Holland  boats  in  that  country.  Germany  used  the 
Lake  devices,  which  had  not  been  patented  in  that  country  and  were  made  use  of 
by  the  Krupps.  Thus  it  appears  that  the  modern  submarines,  as  now  built  and  used 
in  the  navies  of  the  world,  owe  then-  success  to  principles  of  construction  and  devices 
for  control  originated  and  developed  by  American  inventors. 

Engine  Power. 

The  internal-combustion  engine  is  the  heart  of  the  submarine.  Steam,  with 
its  heavy  engine,  has  been  long  set  aside,  and  electricity,  derived  from  the  storage 
battery,  yet  awaits  sufficient  development.  Gasoline  succeeded  them.  The  internal- 


A  PROTECTOR  FITTED  FOR  EXPERIMENTAL  WORK  UNDER  ICE 

combustion  engine  became  essential  from  its  light  weight  and  the  fact  that  it  could 
be  started  and  shut  down  instantly.  This  is  of  prime  importance,  as  permitting 
quick  submergence  or  emergence,  either  to  escape  from  a  high-speed  destroyer  or  to 
capture  a  merchantman.  It  weighs  less  per  horse  power,  takes  up  less  room  and 
requires  less  fuel  per  hour  than  any  other  reliable  motor.  It  was  early  used  in  both 
the  Holland  and  Lake  boats  and  is  still  the  chief  prime  motor. 

The  difficulty  with  the  early  boats  was  that  they  were  slow  in  speed,  making 
only  from  eight  to  nine  knots  per  hour.  Increased  speed  was  demanded  by  govern- 
ments and  more  powerful  engines,  within  a  fixed  limit  of  weight,  were  demanded. 
In  doing  this  engines  were  built  of  such  flimsy  construction  that  they  soon  went  to 
pieces.  The  gasoline  used  also  gave  off  a  gas  of  highly  explosive  character  and  one 
very  likely  to  escape  from  leaky  tanks  or  joints.  Several  explosions  took  place  in 
consequence,  in  one  of  which  twenty-three  men  were  killed.  As  a  result  all  the  nations 
demanded  that  a  non-explosive  fuel  should  be  used,  and  builders  turned  to  the  Diesel 
engine  as  offering  a  solution  to  the  difficulty. 


THE  STORY  OF  THE  SUBMARINE 


13 


This  heavy  oil  engine,  weighing  about  five  hundred  pounds  per  horse-power, 
was  not  adapted  to  the  submarine,  and  efforts  have  been  made  to  decrease  the  weight. 
These  have  not  as  yet  had  a  satisfactory  result  and  experiments  are  still  going  on. 

The  Periscope. 

As  the  engine  is  the  heart  of  the  submarine,  the  periscope  is  its  eye.  This  is, 
in  its  simpler  forms,  a  stiff,  detachable  tube  from  fifteen  to  twenty  feet  long  and  about 
four  inches  in  diameter.  On  its  top  is  an  object  glass  which  takes  in  all  objects  within 
its  range  and  transmits  an  image  of  them  through  a  right-angled  prism  and  down 
the  tube.  By  means  of  other  lenses  and  prisms  an  image  of  the  external  object  is 
thus  made  visible  to  those  within  the  submarine.  In  this  process  of  transmission 


A  SUBMARINE  UNDER  ICE 

there  is  a  certain  loss  of  light,  and  to  allow  for  that  the  image  is  magnified  to  about 
one-quarter  above  natural  size. 

To  obtain  in  this  manner  a  correct  idea  of  the  distance  of  the  object  seen  proved 
difficult,  but  by  continued  experiment  this  difficulty  has  been  overcome.  Mr.  Lake 
developed  an  instrument  suited  to  this  purpose  and  one  which  gave  a  simultaneous 
view  of  the  entire  horizon.  There  is  one  fault  in  the  periscope  not  easy  to  obviate. 
It  is  an  instrument  for  day  use  only.  When  dark  comes  on  it  becomes  useless,  and 
this  does  away  with  the  possibility  of  a  successful  submarine  attack  by  night. 

The  periscope  is  the  one  part  of  the  submarine  scout  equipment  that  is  open  to 
vision  from  the  surface.  But  while  the  outlook  of  the  undersea  captain,  aided  by 
his  telescopic  sights,  has  a  radius  of  several  miles,  the  periscope  tube,  of  only  four 
or  five-inch  diameter  and  painted  of  a  neutral  tint,  is  not  easily  seen.  If  the  sea  is 
a  little  choppy  it  is  difficult  to  discover  it  with  the  naked  eye  at  about  300  or  400 
yards  away,  or  in  a  smooth  sea  at  over  500  yards. 

The  idea  that  a  submarine  may  be  located  by  an  aeroplane  is  looked  upon  by 
Mr.  Lake  as  a  fallacy,  except  in  water  of  crystal-like  clearness,  like  that  of  the 
Mediterranean  or  the  Caribbean,  and  periscopes  are  now  being  made  to  scour  the 
heavens  as  well  as  the  horizon,  so  that  the  presence  of  an  enemy  aeroplane  can  easily 
be  seen.  An  attack  by  an  aeroplane  bomb,  therefore,  can  readily  be  avoided,  in 
view  of  the  difficulty  of  hitting  such  an  object  from  the  upper  air. 


14  THE  STORY  OF  THE  SUBMARINE 

The  submarine  is  the  guerrilla  of  the  sea.  Its  tactics  are  like  those  of  the  Indian 
who  fights  under  cover  or  lies  in  ambush  for  his  enemy.  It  is  the  weaker  party  and 
can  hope  for  success  only  through  strategy.  The  old  adage  that  "all  is  fair  in  love 
and  war"  applies  to  this  new  weapon  of  destruction  as  to  every  warlike  instrument. 
It  is  its  invisibility  that  makes  the  submarine  the  terror  of  the  seas.  This  has  been 
well  proved  during  the  European  war.  The  North  Sea  and  the  English  Channel 
have  been  invaded  by  German  submarines  which  have  made  great  havoc  among 
merchant  ships.  And  it  is  well  to  draw  attention  to  the  fact  that  submarines  are 
safe  from  each  other.  In  no  case  has  a  battle  taken  place  between  two  of  these  armed 
sharks  except  in  the  one  instance  reported  of  an  Austrian  sinking  an  Italian  sub- 
marine. But  in  this  case  the  Italian  boat  was  on  the  surface  and  was  at  the  time 
practically  a  surface  ship. 

During  the  war  the  Germans  were  especially  active  in  the  use  of  the  submarine, 
and  did  much  in  making  them  an  effective  terror  of  the  seas.  With  no  mercantile 


TVPf  OTHfSH  SPtffi  Stt  KKKKS 


TTPE  OF  HIGH  SPEED  OCEAN-GOING  SUBMARINE 

marine  of  their  own  to  guard,  they  had  a  free  field  for  attack  in  the  abundant  ship- 
ping of  their  foes.  The  loss  of  ships  was  so  numerous  and  become  such  a  common 
occurrence  that  little  attention  was  finally  paid  to  them  except  when  great  loss  of  life 
took  place,  as  in  the  signal  instance  of  the  "Lusitania." 

The  Voyage  of  the  "  Deutschland." 

The  great  mission  of  the  submarine  during  the  European  war  was  as  a  com- 
merce destroyer.  Many  ships  were  sunk  and  many  lives,  with  cargoes  of  great  value, 
were  lost,  and  it  was  not  until  the  summer  of  1916  that  the  submarine  appeared  in 
a  new  role,  that  of  a  commerce  carrier.  On  July  9th  of  that  year  the  people  of 
Baltimore  were  astounded  by  the  appearance  in  their  port  of  a  submarine  vessel  of 
unusual  size  and  novel  errand.  Instead  of  being  a  destroyer  of  merchandise,  this 
new  craft  was  an  unarmed  carrier  of  merchandise.  It  had  crossed  the  Atlantic  on 
a  voyage  of  4,000  miles  in  extent,  laden  with  dyestuffs  to  supply  the  needs  of  American 
weavers. 

This  new  type  of  vessel,  the  "Deutschland,"  was  an  undersea  craft  of  315  feet 
length  and  a  gross  tonnage  of  701  tons,  its  cargo  capacity  being  more  than  1,000 
tons.  It  had  crossed  the  ocean  in  defiance  of  the  wide  cordon  of  enemy  warships 
which  swarmed  over  part  of  its  route,  and  reached  port  in  safety  after  a  memorable 
voyage,  to  the  surprise  and  interest  of  the  world.  Leaving  the  port  of  Bremenhaven 
on  June  18th,  and  halting  at  Heligoland  for  four  days  to  train  its  crew,  it  made  its 
way  across  the  Atlantic  in  sixteen  days.  During  this  voyage  it  lay  for  two  hours 
on  the  ocean  bottom  in  the  English  Channel  and  was  submerged  in  all  not  over  ninety 
hours,  the  remainder  of  the  voyage  being  made  on  the  surface. 


THE  STORY  OF  THE  SUBMARINE 


15 


Its  crew,  composed  of  twenty-six  men  and  three  officers,  found  their  novel  voyage 
rather  agreeable  than  otherwise.  Supplied  with  plenty  of  good  food,  a  well-selected 
library,  a  graph ophone  with  an  abundance  of  music  records,  and  other  means  of 
convenience  and  enjoyment,  their  voyage  was  more  of  a  holiday  then  a  hardship, 
and  they  reached  their  transatlantic  port  none  the  worse  for  their  hazardous  trip. 
It  was  not  the  longest  that  had  been  made.  Other  submarines  had  voyaged  from 
German  ports  to  the  eastern  limit  of  the  Mediterranean,  but  it  was  the  most  notable 
and  attracted  the  widest  attention. 

The  return  voyage  promised  to  be  more  perilous  then  the  outgoing  one.  A 
fleet  of  British  and  French  ships  gathered  around  the  outlet  of  Chesapeake  Bay, 
alert  to  capture  the  daring  mariners  and  their  ship,  if  possible.  Ready  to  leave 


THE  GERMAN  MERCHANT  SUBMARINE  "  DEUTSCHLAND  "  WHICH  CROSSED  THE  ATLANTIC  IN 
1916,  AFTER  ELUDING  THE  BRITISH  BLOCKADE 

Courtesy  of  Baltimore  American  and  C.  &  P.  Telephone  Co, 

Baltimore  on  July  20th,  with  a  return  cargo  of  gold,  nickel  and  rubber,  the  captain 
of  the  "Deutschland"  shrewdly  awaited  a  favorable  opportunity  and  on  August  1st 
began  his  voyage,  plunging  under  sea  as  he  left  the  American  coast-line  and  easily 
evading  the  line  of  floating  foemen.  The  return  to  its  home  port  a  success,  a  second 
round-trip  voyage  was  made  and  completed  on  December  llth,  in  the  course  of  which 
a  convoying  tug-boat  was  rammed  and  sunk  with  the  loss  of  several  lives,  shortly 
after  leaving  New  London,  Conn.  The  "  Deutschland "  was  sent  out  by  private 
parties,  for  purely  commercial  purposes,  not  as  a  military  enterprise. 

Such  is  the  story  of  a  pioneer  enterprise,  that  of  the  use  of  submarine  vessels 
as  commerce  carriers.  It  is  one  not  likely  to  be  supplemented  in  times  of  peace, 
since  surface  boats  would  be  cheaper  and  more  available.  But  in  future  wars — if 
such  there  are  to  be — it  may  point  to  a  future  of  advantageous  trade. 

Submarine  Dredging. 

Commerce  is  not  the  only  peaceful  mission  of  the  submarine.  In  1895  was 
organized  an  association  known  as  the  Lake  Submarine  Company,  its  purpose  being 
to  use  the  Lake  type  of  submarine  boat  for  the  recovery  of  lost  treasures  from  the 
sea  bottom  and  for  other  possibilities  of  undersea  work.  This  company  is  still  in 


16 


THE  STORY  OF  THE  SUBMARINE 


existence,  its  various  purposes  being  to  recover  sunken  ships  and  their  cargoes,  to 
build  breakwaters  and  other  submerged  constructions,  to  aid  in  submarine  tunnel 
building,  to  dredge  for  gold,  to  fish  for  pearls  and  sponges,  and  for  similar  operations. 
The  first  vessel  adapted  to  these  purposes  was  the  "  Argonaut,"  built  by  Simon 
Lake  in  1894.  The  important  feature  of  this  boat  was  a  diver's  compartment, 
enabling  divers  to  leave  the  vessel  when  submerged,  for  the  purpose  of  operating 
on  wrecks  or  performing  other  undersea  duties.  This  vessel  and  its  successors  have 
bottom  doors  for  the  use  of  divers,  as  previously  stated.  They  are  now  used  for 
numerous  purposes  for  which  they  are  much  better  adapted  then  the  old  system  of 

surface  diving,  the  sea  bottom 
being  under  direct  observation 
and  within  immediate  reach. 
This  sea  bottom,  in  lo- 
calities near  land,  is  abund- 
antly sown  with  wrecks,  old 
and  new,  and  in  many  cases 
bearing  permanently  valuable 
cargoes,  such  as  gold  and 
coal.  The  Lake  system 
greatly  simplifies  the  work  of 
search  for  sunken  ships,  the 
vessels  being  able  in  a  few 
hours'  time  to  search  over 
regions  which  would  have 
taken  months  in  the  old 
method.  Many  wrecks  have 
been  found  by  these  bottom- 
prowling  scouts  and  valuable  material  recovered.  Thus  vessels  laden  with  coal 
have  been  traced  that  had  been  many  years  under  the  water  and  deeply  covered  with 
sand  and  silt,  and  their  cargoes  brought  to  the  surface. 

The  gold-dredging  spoken  of  refers  to  the  working  of  gold-bearing  sands  found 
at  the  mouth  of  certain  rivers  in  Alaska  and  South  America.  Places  on  the  Alaskan 
coast,  laid  bare  at  high  tide,  are  said  to  have  yielded  as  much  as  $12,000  per  cubic 
yard.  With  the  Lake  system  it  is  possible  to  gather  material  from  such  localities 
to  a  depth  of  150  or  more  feet,  the  material  being  drawn  up  by  suction  pumps  into 
the  vessel  and  its  gold  recovered. 

Another  important  application  is  that  of  fishing  for  pearl  shells,  sponges  and 
coral.  This  is  blind  work  when  done  by  divers  from  the  surface,  the  returns  being 
largely  matters  of  chance.  By  aid  of  submerged  boats,  with  their  powerful  electric 
lights,  the  work  becomes  one  of  certainty  rather  than  of  chance.  The  recovery  of 
the  oyster,  clam  and  other  edible  shell-fish  is  also  a  feature  of  the  work  which  the 
Lake  Company  has  in  view.  The  present  method  of  dredging  is  of  the  "hit  or  miss" 
character,  while  the  submarine  method  is  capable  of  thorough  work.  Vessels  have 
been  designed  for  this  purpose  with  a  capacity  of  gathering  oysters  from  good  ground 
at  the  rate  of  5,000  bushels  per  hour.  In  regard  to  submarine  engineering,  of  its 
many  varieties,  the  Lake  system  is  likely  to  be  a  highly  useful  aid  and  assistance.  ; 

These  particulars  are  given  to  show  that  the  submarine  vessel  is  not  wholly  an 
instrument  of  "frightfulness,"  as  indicated  by  its  use  in  war,  but  is  capable  of  being 
made  useful  for  many  purposes  in  peace.  Some  of  these  have  here  been  very  briefly 
stated.  With  continued  practice  its  utility  will  grow,  and  by  its  aid  the  sea  bottom 
up  to  a  certain  depth  may  become  as  open  to  varied  operations  as  is  the  land  surface. 


A  SEMI-SUBMERSIBLE  WRECKING  APPARATUS 


The  Story  of  the  Panama  Canal 

America  has  captured  the  forces  of  Nature,  harnessed  the  floods  and  made 
the  desert  bloom,  builded  gigantic  bridges  and  arrogant  skyscrapers  and  bored  road- 
ways through  solid  rock  and  beneath  water,  but  the  most  spectacular  of  all  spec- 
tacular accomplishments  is  the  Panama  Canal. 

Some  four  centuries  ago,  Balboa,  the  intrepid,  the  persevering,  led  his  little 
band  of  adventurers  across  the  Isthmus  of  Darien,  as  it  was  then  called,  and,  leaving 
their  protection,  gave  rein  to  his  impatience  by  going  on  ahead  and  climbing  alone, 
slowly  and  painfully,  the  continental  divide,  from  which  vantage  point  he  discovered 
the  world's  largest  ocean. 

We  are  told  that,  later,  gathering  his  followers,  he  walked  out  into  the  surf 
and  with  his  sword  in  his  right  hand  and  the  banner  of  Castile  in  his  left  gave  the 
vast  expanse  of  water  its  present  name  and  claimed  all  the  land  washed  by  its  waves 
the  lawful  property  of  the  proud  country  to  which  he  owed  allegiance. 

The  narrowness  of  the  Isthmus  naturally  suggested  the  cutting  of  a  waterway 
through  it.  It  interposed  between  Atlantic  and  Pacific  a  barrier  in  places  less  than 
fifty  miles  wide.  To  sail  from  Colon  to  Panama — forty-five  miles  as  the  bird  flies — • 
required  a  voyage  around  Cape  Horn — some  ten  thousand  miles.  Yet  it  was  nearly 
four  centuries  before  any  actual  effort  was  made  to  construct  such  a  canal. 

In  1876  an  organization  was  perfected  in  France  for  making  surveys  and  col- 
lecting data  on  which  to  base  the  construction  of  a  canal  across  the  Isthmus  of 
Panama,  and  in  1878,  a  concession  for  prosecuting  the  work  was  secured  from  the 
Colombian  Government.  In  May,  1879,  an  international  congress  was  convened, 
under  the  auspices  of  Ferdinand  de  Lesseps,  to  consider  the  question  of  the  best 
location  and  plan  of  the  canal. 

The  Panama  Canal  Company  was  organized,  with  Ferdinand  de  Lesseps  as  its 
president,  and  the  stock  of  this  company  was  successfully  floated  in  December,  1880. 
The  two  years  following  were  devoted  largely  to  surveys,  examinations  and  pre- 
liminary work.  In  1889  the  company  went  into  bankruptcy  and  operations  were 
suspended  until  the  new  Panama  Canal  Company  was  organized  in  1894. 

The  United  States  to  the  Rescue. 

The  United  States,  not  unmindful  of  the  advantages  of  an  Isthmian  Canal,  had. 
from  time  to  time,  made  surveys  of  the  various  routes.  With  a  view  to  government 
ownership  and  control,  Congress  directed  an  investigation,  with  the  result  that  the 
Commission  reported,  on  November  16, 1901,  in  favor  of  Panama  and  recommended 
the  lock  type  of  canal,  appraising  the  value  of  the  rights,  franchises,  concessions, 
lands,  unfinished  work,  plans  and  other  property,  including  the  railroad  of  the  new 
Panama  Canal  Company,  at  $40,000,000.  An  act  of  Congress,  approved  June  28, 
1902,  authorized  the  President  of  the  United  States  to  acquire  this  property  at  this 
figure,  and  also  to  secure  from  the  Republic  of  Colombia  perpetual  control  of  a 
strip  of  land  not  less  than  six  miles  wide  across  the  Isthmus  and  the  right  to  excavate, 
construct  and  operate  and  protect  thereon  a  canal  of  such  depth  and  capacity  as 
would  afford  convenient  passage  to  the  largest  ships  now  in  use  or  which  might  be 
reasonably  anticipated. 

Later  on  a  treaty  was  made  with  the  Republic  of  Panama  whereby  the  United 
States  was  granted  control  of  a  ten-mile  strip  constituting  the  Canal  Zone.  This 
was  ratified  by  the  Republic  of  Panama  on  December  2,  1903,  and  by  the  United 

2  cm 


18 


THE  STORY  OF  THE  PANAMA  CANAL 


UNCLE  SAM'S  BIG  WORK  AT  PANAMA 

A  bird's-eye  view  of  the  great  canal,  showing  how  the  Atlantic  and  Pacific 
Oceans  are  here  joined. 


THE  STORY  OF  THE  PANAMA  CANAL 


19 


20 THE  STORY  OF  THE  PANAMA  CANAL 

States  on  February  23,  1904.     On  May  4,  1904,  work  was  begun  under  United  States 
control. 

The  Canal  and  the  Navy. 

The  opening  of  the  canal  has  greatly  increased  the  effectiveness  of  the  Navy 
of  the  United  States.  It  has  reduced  the  distance  between  the  central  points  of  the 
Atlantic  and  Pacific  coasts  from  13,000  to  5,000  miles  and  greatly  reduced  the 
problem  of  coaling  on  a  cruise  from  coast  to  coast.  It  has  made  possible  the  con- 
centration of  a  fleet  at  either  entrance  of  the  canal  which,  with  a  cruising  speed  of 
fifteen  knots,  could  reach  the  center  of  the  Pacific  coast  in  nine  days  and  the  center 
of  the  Atlantic  coast  in  five  days. 

Where,  formerly,  the  fleets  stationed  opposite  the  middle  of  each  coast  were, 
from  a  cruising  point  of  view,  as  far  apart  as  opposite  sides  of  the  world,  they  are 
now  as  near  as  if  one  were  off  New  York  and  the  other  off  Buenos  Aires. 

With  regard  to  the  monetary  saving  to  the  United  States  resulting  from  the 
availability  of  the  canal  for  naval  use,  it  is  apparent  that  the  distance  and  time  between 
the  coasts  have  been  reduced  to  less  than  two-fifths  of  the  former  figures.  The  cost 
of  coast-to-coast  movements  is  reduced  accordingly,  for  though  vessels  of  the  Navy 
pay  tolls,  such  payment  is  in  effect  a  transfer  of  money  from  one  branch  of  the 
government  to  another. 

The  strategic  importance  of  the  canal  is  inestimable  from  a  monetary  standpoint. 

The  Great  Canal. 

The  Isthmus  of  Panama  runs  east  and  west  and  the  canal  traverses  it  from 
Colon  on  the  north  to  Panama  on  the  south  in  a  general  direction  from  northwest 
to  southeast,  the  Pacific  terminus  being  twenty-two  miles  east  of  the  Atlantic 
entrance.  The  principal  features  of  the  canal  are  a  sea-level  entrance  channel  from 
the  east  through  Limon  Bay  to  Gatun,  about  seven  miles  long,  five-hundred-foot 
bottom  width  and  forty-one-foot  depth  at  mean  tide.  At  Gatun  the  eighty-five- 
foot  lake  level  is  obtained  by  a  dam  across  the  valley.  The  lake  is  confined  on  the 
Pacific  side  by  a  dam  between  the  hills  at  Pedro  Miguel,  thirty-two  miles  away. 
The  lake  thus  formed  has  an  area  of  164  square  miles  and  a  channel  depth  of  not  less 
than  forty-five  feet  at  normal  stage. 

At  Gatun  ships  pass  from  the  sea  to  the  lake  level,  and  vice  versa,  by  three 
locks  in  flight.  On  the  Pacific  side  there  is  one  lowering  of  thirty  feet  at  Pedro  Miguel 
to  a  small  lake  fifty-five  feet  above  sea  level,  held  by  dam  at  Miraflores,  where  two 
lowerings  overcome  the  difference  of  level  to  the  sea.  The  channel  between  the 
locks  on  the  Pacific  side  is  five  hundred  feet  wide  at  the  bottom  and  forty-five  feet 
deep,  and  below  the  Miraflores  locks  the  sea-level  section,  about  eight  miles  in  length, 
is  five  hundred  feet  wide  at  the  bottom  and  forty-five  feet  deep  at  mean  tide. 
Through  the  lake  the  bottom  widths  are  not  less  than  one  thousand  feet  for  about 
sixteen  miles,  eight  hundred  feet  for  about  four  miles,  five  hundred  feet  for  about 
three  miles  and  through  the  continental  divide  from  Bas  Obispo  to  Pedro  Miguel, 
a  distance  of  about  nine  miles,  the  bottom  width  is  three  hundred  feet.  The  total 
length  of  the  canal  from  deep  water  in  the  Caribbean,  forty-one-foot  depth  at  mean 
tide  to  deep  water  in  the  Pacific,  forty-five-foot  depth  at  mean  tide,  is  practically 
fifty  miles,  fifteen  miles  of  which  are  at  sea  level. 

The  Hydroelectric  Station. 

The  hydroelectric  station  uses  water  from  Gatun  Lake  for  driving  three  turbo- 
generators of  2,000-kilowatt  capacity  each,  which  supply  electricity  for  the  operation 
of  the  lock  and  spillway  machinery,  the  terminal  shops  and  adjacent  facilities,  and 


THE  STORY  OF  THE  PANAMA  CANAL 


22 


THE  STORY  OF  THE  PANAMA  CANAL 


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THE  STORY  OF  THE  PANAMA  CANAL 


23 


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LADDER  DREDGE,  PANAMA  CANAL 


SUCTION  DREDGE,  PANAMA  CANAL 

The  upper  view  shows  a  ladder  dredge,  which  operates  by  means  of  buckets  on  a 
continuous  chain,  dipping  the  contents  of  the  buckets  into  the  scow  which  lies  along- 
side. The  lower  view  shows  a  suction  dredge,  which  operates  on  soft  mud  or  sands, 
pumping  the  discharge  through  the  pipe  seen  at  the  left  of  the  illustration.  The  pipe 
may  be  carried  to  any  desired  point  and  used  for  filling 


24 


THE  STORY  OF  THE  PANAMA  CANAL 


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THE  STORY  OF  THE  PANAMA  CANAL 


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THE  STORY  OF  THE  PANAMA  CANAL 


THE  STORY  OF  THE  PANAMA  CANAL 


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THE  STORY  OF  THE  PANAMA  CANAL 


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THE  STORY  OF  THE  PANAMA  CANAL 


for  the  lighting  of  the  locks  and  the  canal  villages  and  fortifications.  Transmission 
over  the  Zone  is  effected  through  four  substations  and  a  connecting  high  voltage 
transmission  line  which  follows  the  main  line  of  the  Panama  Railroad. 

Gatun  Lake,  impounded  by  Gatun  Dam,  has  an  area  of  164  square  miles  when 
its  surface  is  at  the  normal  elevation  of  eighty-five  feet  above  sea  level,  and  is  the 
largest  artificially-formed  lake  in  the  world.  The  area  of  the  water-shed  tributary 
to  the  lake  is  1,320  square  miles.  During  the  rainy  season,  from  April  to  the  latter 
part  of  December,  the  run-off  from  this  basin  exceeds  considerably  the  consumption 
of  water,  and  the  surplus  is  discharged  through  the  spillway  of  Gatun  Dam.  Toward 
the  end  of  the  rainy  season  the  surface  of  the  lake  is  raised  to  about  eighty-seven 
feet  above  sea  level,  in  order  to  afford  a  surplus  or  reserve  supply  to  keep  the  channel 


STEAM  SHOVEL  LOADING  ROCK 

These  great  machines,  which  are  able  to  dig  out  and  load  several  tons  of  material  at  each  operation, 
made  the  rapid  progress  in  digging  the  canal  possible. 

full  to  operating  depth  during  the  dry  season,  in  part  of  which  the  consumption  and 
evaporation  are  in  excess  of  the  supply.  It  is  calculated  that  when  this  level  has 
been  attained  at  the  beginning  of  the  dry  season  the  reserve  is  sufficient  to  assure 
a  surface  elevation  of  at  least  seventy-nine  feet  at  the  end  of  the  dry  season  in  spite 
of  the  consumption  at  the  hydroelectric  station,  and  allowing  forty-one  passages  of 
vessels  through  the  locks  each  day  with  the  use  of  the  full  length  of  the  chambers, 
or  fifty-eight  lockages  a  day  when  the  shorter  sections  of  the  chambers  are  used  and 
cross  filling  is  employed,  which  would  usually  be  the  case.  This  is  a  greater  number 
of  lockages  than  can  be  made  in  one  day. 

Gigantic  Obstacles. 

The  greatest  difficulty  encountered  in  the  excavation  of  the  canal  was  due  to 
slides  and  breaks  which  caused  large  masses  of  material  to  slide  or  move  into  the 


THE  STORY  OF  THE  PANAMA  CANAL 


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THE  STORY  OF  THE  PANAMA  CANAL 


THE  STORY  OF  THE  PANAMA  CANAL      33 

excavated  area,  closing  off  the  drainage,  upsetting  steam  shovels  and  tearing  up  the 
tracks.  The  greatest  slide  was  at  Cucaracha,  and  gave  trouble  when  the  French 
first  began  cutting  in  1884.  Though  at  first  confined  to  a  length  of  800  feet,  the 
slide  extended  to  include  the  entire  basin  south  of  Gold  Hill,  or  a  length  of  about 
3,000  feet.  Some  idea  of  the  magnitude  of  these  slides  can  be  obtained  from  the 
fact  that  during  the  fiscal  year  1910  of  14,921,750  cubic  yards  that  were  removed, 
2,649,000  yards,  or  eighteen  per  cent,  were  from  slides  or  breaks  that  had  previously 
existed  or  that  had  developed  during  the  year. 

The  one  greatest  undertaking  of  the  whole  excavation  was  the  Gaillard  Cut. 
Work  had  been  in  progress  on  this  since  1880,  and  during  the  French  control  over 
20,000,000  cubic  yards  were  removed.  On  May  4,  1904,  when  the  United  States 
took  charge,  it  was  estimated  that  there  was  left  to  excavate  150,000,000  cubic  yards. 
Some  idea  of  the  size  of  this  big  cut  may  be  formed  from  the  fact  that  this  division 
has  within  its  jurisdiction  over  200  miles  of  five-foot-gage  track  laid,  about  fifty- 

miles  of  which  is  within  the  side  slopes  of  the  Gaillard  Cut  alone. 


Gatun  Dam. 

The  great  dam  at  Gatun  is  a  veritable  hill  —  7,500  feet  over  all,  2,100  feet  wide 
at  the  base,  398  feet  through  at  the  water  surface,  and  100  feet  wide  at  the  top,  which 
is  115  feet  above  sea  level.  The  dimensions  of  the  dam  are  such  as  to  assure  that 
ample  provision  is  made  against  every  force  which  may  affect  its  safety,  and  while 
it  is  made  of  dirt,  a  thing  before  unheard  of,  it  is  of  such  vast  proportions  that  it  is 
as  strong  and  firm  as  the  everlasting  hills  themselves. 

Fluctuations  in  the  lake  due  to  floods  are  controlled  by  an  immense  spillway 
dam  built  of  concrete.  The  front  of  the  dam  is  the  arc  of  a  circle  740  feet  long  with 
fourteen  openings  which,  when  the  gates  are  raised  to  the  full  height,  permit  a  dis- 
charge of  140,000  cubic  feet  per  second.  The  water  thus  discharged  passes  through 
a  diversion  channel  in  the  old  bed  of  the  Chagres  River,  generating,  by  an  enormous 
electric  plant,  the  power  necessary  for  operating  the  locks. 

The  locks  of  the  canal  are  in  pairs,  so  that  if  any  lock  is  out  of  service  navigation 
will  not  be  interrupted,  also,  when  all  the  locks  are  in  use  the  passage  of  shipping 
is  expedited  by  using  one  set  of  locks  for  the  ascent  and  the  other  for  descent.  These 
locks  are  110  feet  wide  and  have  usable  lengths  of  1,000  feet.  The  system  of  filling 
adopted  consists  of  a  culvert  in  each  side  wall  feeding  laterals  from  which  are  openings 
upward  into  the  lock  chamber.  The  entire  lock  can  be  filled  or  emptied  in  fifteen 
minutes  and  forty-two  seconds  when  one  culvert  is  used  and  seven  minutes  and 
fifty-one  seconds,  using  both  culverts.  It  requires  about  ten  hours  for  a  large  ship 
to  make  the  entire  trip  through  the  canal. 

Meeting  all  Emergencies. 

Many  extraordinary  feats  of  engineering  were  accomplished  to  overcome  the 
difficulties  presented.  Special  contrivances,  wonderful  in  their  operation,  were 
invented  to  meet  exigencies  and  emergencies. 

The  first  and  greatest  problem  attempted  by  the  United  States  was  to  make  the 
Canal  Zone  healthful.  This  strip  of  land  from  ocean  to  ocean  abounded  in  disease- 
L-'eeding  swamps  and  filthy  habitations  unfit  for  human  beings.  The  death-rate 
was  appalling  and  the  labor  conditions  terrible.  During  the  first  two  and  a  half 
years,  therefore,  all  energies  were  devoted  to  ridding  the  Isthmus  of  disease  by  sani- 
tation, to  recruiting  and  organizing  a  working  force  and  providing  for  it  suitable 
houses,  hotels,  messes,  kitchens  and  an  adequate  food  supply.  This  work  included 
clearing  lands,  draining  and  filling  pools  and  swamps  for  the  extermination  of  the 
mosquito,  the  establishment  of  hospitals  for  the  care  of  the  sick  and  injured  and 


34 


THE  STORY  OF  THE  PANAMA  CANAL 


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36 THE  STORY  OF  THE  PANAMA  CANAL 

the  building  of  suitable  quarantine  quarters.  Municipal  improvements  were  under- 
taken in  Panama  and  Colon  and  the  various  settlements  in  the  Canal  Zone,  such 
as  the  construction  of  reservoirs,  pavements  and  a  system  of  modern  roads.  Over 
2,000  buildings  were  constructed  besides  the  remodeling  of  1,500  buildings  turned 
over  by  the  French  company. 

It  was  only  after  all  this  preliminary  sanitation  was  accomplished  that  the 
real  work  of  digging  the  canal  could  go  forward  with  any  hope  of  success.  These 
hygienic  conditions  had  the  result  of  making  the  Canal  Zone  one  of  the  most  healthful 
spots  in  the  world,  and  work  on  the  canal  became  so  popular  that  it  was  no  longer 
necessary  to  enlist  recruits  from  the  West  Indies,  the  good  pay,  fair  treatment  and 
excellent  living  conditions  bringing  thousands  of  laborers  from  Spain  and  Italy. 
The  greatest  number  employed  at  any  one  time  was  45,000,  of  which  5,000  were 
American. 

A  Battle  Won. 

The  completion  of  this  herculean  task  marked  an  epoch  in  the  history  of  the 
world.  A  gigantic  battle  against  floods  and  torrents,  pestilence  and  swamps,  tropical 
rivers,  jungles  and  rock-ribbed  mountains  had  been  2ought — and  won!  Well  worthy 
a  place  in  the  halls  of  immortal  fame  are  the  names  of  the  thousands  of  sturdy  sons 
who,  with  ingenuity,  pluck  and  perseverance  never  before  equaled,  succeeded  in 
making  a  pathway  for  the  nations  of  the  world  from  ocean  to  ocean. 

This  great  and  daring  undertaking,  which  had  for  its  object  the  opening  up 
of  new  trade  routes  and  lines  of  commerce,  annihilating  distance  and  wiping  out 
the  width  of  two  continents  between  New  York  and  Yokohama  and  making  the 
Atlantic  seaboard  and  the  Pacific  coast  close  neighbors,  is  the  climax  of  man's  achieve- 
ment and  the  greatest  gift  to  civilization.  It  will  help  in  the  consummation  of  man's 
loftiest  dreams  of  world  friendship  and  world  peace. 

*So  far,  in  the  use  of  the  canal,  over  forty  per  cent  of  the  vessels  which  have 
passed  through  it  have  been  engaged  in  the  coastwise  trade  of  the  United  States — 
each  of  them  saving  about  7,800  miles  on  each  trip.  If  their  average  speed  be  taken 
at  ten  knots,  they  have  averaged  a  saving  of  over  a  month  at  sea  on  each  voyage 
from  coast  to  coast.  Where  formerly  the  round  trip  of  a  ten-knot  vessel  required 
about  fifty-five  days'  actual  steaming,  the  time  at  sea  for  the  same  trip  for  the  same 
vessel  is  now  reduced  to  about  twenty-two  days. 

The  canal  makes  San  Francisco  nearer  to  Liverpool  by  5,666  miles,  a  saving  of 
two-fifths  of  the  old  journey  by  Magellan.  The  distance  between  San  Francisco 
and  Gibraltar  has  been  reduced  from  12,571  miles  to  7,621  miles,  a  saving  of  4,950 
miles,  or  thirty-nine  per  cent  of  the  former  distance. 

From  San  Francisco  to  Buenos  Aires,  via  Valparaiso  and  Magellan,  is  approxi- 
mately 7,610  miles,  which  is  shorter  than  the  route  through  the  canal,  by  which  the 
distance  is  8,941  miles.  To  Rio  de  Janeiro,  the  distance  via  Magellan  is  8,609  miles; 
by  the  canal  7,885  miles.  To  Pernambuco,  on  the  eastern  promontory  of  South 
America,  the  distance  via  Magellan  is  9,748  miles ;  via  the  canal  6,746  miles.  To  Para 
the  distances  via  Magellan  and  via  the  canal  are  10,852  and  5,642  miles,  respectively. 

From  San  Francisco  to  Freetown,  on  the  west  coast  of  middle  Africa,  the  dis- 
tance by  the  most  practicable  route,  using  the  Strait  of  Magellan,  is  11,380  miles. 
Through  the  canal  and  by  way  of  the  island  of  Barbados,  the  distance  is  7,277  miles. 
The  new  route  is  less  than  two-thirds  of  the  former. 

With  reference  to  the  trade  between  the  Atlantic  coast  of  the  United  States 
and  the  west  coast  of  South  America,  New  York  is  nearer  to  Valparaiso  by  3,717 
miles  by  virtue  of  the  canal;  to  Iquique,  one  of  the  great  nitrate  ports,  by  4,139 
miles;  and  to  Guayaquil  by  7,405  miles.  From  New  York  to  Guayaquil  the  present 

*The  following  information  and  statistics  by  courtesy  of  The  Panama  Canal,  Washington  office. 


THE  STORY  OF  THE  PANAMA  CANAL 


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THE  STORY  OF  THE  PANAMA  CANAL 


THE  STORY  OF  THE  PANAMA  CANAL       39 

distance  of  2,765  miles  is  approximately  twenty-seven  per  cent  of  the  former  distance 
—10,270  miles. 

As  to  the  Far  East,  New  York  is  nearer  to  Yokohama  by  3,768  miles  than  formerly 
by  way  of  the  Suez  Canal,  but  the  latter  route  is  eighteen  miles  shorter  than  the 
Panama  route  for  vessels  plying  between  New  York  and  Hongkong.  New  York  is 
forty-one  miles  nearer  Manila  by  Panama  than  by  Suez,  and  3,932  miles  nearer 
Sydney  by  Panama.  New  York  is  now,  by  virtue  of  the  Panama  Canal,  nearer  than 
Liverpool  to  Yokohama  by  1,880  miles,  and  nearer  than  Liverpool  to  Sydney  by 
2,424  miles. 

When  the  ship  enters  the  harbor  of  either  of  the  terminal  ports  it  is  boarded 
by  officers  of  the  canal  who  examine  its  bill  of  health  and  clearance,  see  that  its 
certificate  of  canal  measurement  is  properly  made  out,  and  ascertain  any  of  the 
vessel's  needs  in  the  matters  of  fuel,  supplies,  extra  men  to  handle  the  lines  during  the 
passage  of  the  locks,  etc.  These  matters  are  immediately  reported  to  the  Captain 
of  the  Port,  who  gives  the  necessary  orders  to  insure  proper  attendance  on  the  vessel's 
needs  and  directs  its  start  through  the  canal  whenever  it  is  ready. 

In  all  stages  of  its  transit  of  the  canal  the  vessel  must  have  on  board  a  govern- 
ment pilot.  There  is  no  charge  for  pilotage  on  vessels  going  directly  through  the 
canal  without  stopping  to  discharge  cargo  or  passengers  at  the  terminal  ports.  The 
pilot  is  on  board  in  an  advisory  capacity  and  is  required  to  confer  with  the  master 
of  the  vessel,  giving  him  the  benefit  of  his  knowledge  and  advice  as  to  the  handling 
of  the  vessel  in  the  various  reaches,  but  the  master,  who  is  best  acquainted  with  the 
peculiarities  of  his  vessel  and  her  ways  of  answering  the  helm,  is  responsible  for  the 
navigation  of  the  vessel,  except  when  she  is  passing  through  the  locks. 

The  handling  of  a  vessel  during  its  transit  of  the  canal  is  like  the  handling  of  a 
railway  train  on  its  "run."  The  course  is  equipped  with  all  requisite  signals,  facilities 
for  mooring,  like  sidings,  and  a  system  of  communication  between  points  along  the 
line,  which  includes  a  special  telephone  system  connecting  all  the  important  points 
of  control  in  series. 

As  soon  as  the  vessel  starts  on  its  transit  of  the  canal,  the  Captain  of  the  Port 
at  the  point  of  entrance  telephones  its  starting  to  the  other  stations  along  the  course. 
As  the  vessel  arrives  and  departs  from  each  of  these  points,  the  fact  is  telephoned 
along  the  line,  so  that  there  is  exact  knowledge  at  each  station  all  the  time  of  the 
status  of  traffic,  and  complete  co-operation  from  the  several  points  of  control. 

The  transit  of  the  canal  requires  about  ten  hours,  of  which  approximately  three 
hours  are  spent  in  the  locks.  In  the  sea-level  channels  and  Gaillard  (formerly 
"Culebra")  Cut  the  speed  of  vessels  is  limited  to  six  knots;  through  Gatun  Lake 
they  may  make  ten,  twelve  and  fifteen  knots,  according  to  the  width  of  the  channel. 
A  vessel  may  clear  from  the  canal  port  at  which  it  enters  and,  after  passing  through 
th«  last  of  the  locks,  put  direct  to  sea  without  further  stop. 

The  handling  of  a  vessel  all  through  the  canal,  except  in  the  locks,  is  essentially 
the  same  as  its  handling  through  any. charted  channel  where  observance  of  signals, 
ranges  and  turns  is  necessary.  The  canal  channel  throughout  is  very  accurately 
charted,  fully  equipped  with  aids  to  navigation,  and  governed  by  explicit  rules  with 
which  the  pilots,  of  course,  are  thoroughly  familiar. 

In  the  locks,  the  vessel  is  under  the  control  of  the  lock-operating  force.  As 
the  vessel  approaches  the  locks,  the  operator  in  charge  at  the  control  house  indicates 
by  an  electrically  operated  signal  at  the  outer  end  of  the  approach  wall  if  the  vessel 
shall  enter  the  locks  and,  if  so,  on  which  side;  or  if  it  shall  keep  back  or  moor  along- 
side the  approach  wall.  If  everything  is  ready  for  the  transit  of  the  locks,  the  vessel 
approaches  the  center  approach  wall,  which  is  a  pier  extending  about  a  thousand 
feet  from  the  locks  proper,  lines  are  thrown  out,  and  connections  are  made  with  the 
electric  towing  locomotives  on  the  approach  wall. 


40 THE  STORY  OF  THE  PANAMA  CANAL 

The  vessel  then  moves  forward  slowly  until  it  is  in  the  entrance  chamber,  when 
lines  are  thrown  out  on  the  other  side  and  connections  are  made  with  towing  loco- 
motives on  the  side  wall.  Six  locomotives  are  used  for  the  larger  vessels,  three  on 
each  wall  of  the  lock  chamber.  Two  keep  forward  of  the  vessel,  pulling  and  holding 
her  head  to  the  center  of  the  chamber;  two  aft,  holding  the  vessel  in  check;  and  two 
slightly  forward  of  amidships,  which  do  most  of  the  towing  of  the  vessel  through 
the  chamber.  The  locomotives  are  powerful  affairs,  secured  against  slipping  by 
the  engagement  of  cogs  with  a  rack  running  along  the  center  of  the  track,  and  equipped 
with  a  slip  drum  and  towing  windlass,  which  allow  the  prompt  paying  out  and  taking 
in  of  hawser  as  required.  No  trouble  has  been  experienced  in  maintaining  absolute 
control  over  the  vessels. 

The  water  within  the  lock  chamber  proper,  beyond  the  entrance  chamber,  ia 
brought  to  the  level  of  that  in  the  approach,  the  gates  toward  the  vessel  are  opened, 
the  fender  chain  is  lowered,  and  the  locomotives  maneuver  the  vessel  into  the  chamber 
and  bring  it  to  rest.  The  gates  are  then  closed,  the  water  raised  or  lowered,  as  the 
case  may  be,  to  the  level  of  that  in  the  next  chamber,  the  gates  at  the  other  end 
are  opened,  and  the  vessel  moved  forward.  Three  such  steps  are  made  at  Gatuiu 
two  at  Miraflores,  and  one  at  Pedro  Miguel. 

When  the  vessel  has  passed  into  the  approach  chamber  at  the  end  of  the  locks, 
the  lines  from  the  towing  locomotives  on  the  side  wall  are  first  cast  off,  then  those 
from  the  locomotives  on  the  approach  wall,  and  the  vessel  clears  under  its  own  power. 

Towing  is  not  ordinarily  required  in  any  part  of  the  canal,  except  in  the  locks, 
for  steam  or  motor  vessels.  Tug  service  for  sailing  ships  or  vessels  without  motive 
power  is  at' the  rate  of  $15  per  hour.  If  the  channel  in  the  cut  has  been  disturbed 
by  a  slide,  tugs  may  be  used  to  handle  vessels  past  the  narrow  places,  but  hi  such 
cases  there  is  no  charge  for  the  service  to  vessels  of  less  than  15,000  gross  tonnage. 


What  is  a  Geyser? 

The  famous  geyser  shown  in  the  illustration  is  called  "Old  Faithful"  because 
of  the  clock-like  regularity  of  its  eruptions.  For  over  twenty  years  it  has  been 
spouting  at  average  intervals  of  sixty-five  minutes. 

Geysers  were  first  observed  in  Iceland  and  the  name,  therefore,  comes  from 
that  language,  being  derived  from  the  word  "geysa,"  meaning  "to  gush"  or  "rush 
forth."  That  is  just  what  they  do. 

There  are  really  three  different  kinds  of  geysers;  one  which  throws  up  hot 
water,  either  continually  or,  like  "Old  Faithful,"  at  intervals;  one  which  simple 
emits  steam  and  no  water  and  one  which  is  a  sort  of  a  hot-water  cistern. 

The  "Grand  Geyser"  at  Firehole  Basin  in  Yellowstone  Park  is  the  most 
magnificent  natural  fountain  in  the  whole  world.  The  "Great  Geyser"  and  the 
"New  Geyser"  are  the  most  remarkable  ones  in  Iceland,  where  there  about  a  hundred 
altogether.  The  basin  of  the  former  is  about  seventy  feet  in  diameter,  and  at  times 
it  throws  up  a  column  of  hot  water  to  the  height  of  from  eighty  to  two  hundred  feet 
in  the  air. 

The  hot-lake  district  of  Auckland,  New  Zealand,  is  also  famous  in  possessing 
some  of  the  most  remarkable  geyser  scenery  in  the  world.  It  was  formerly  noted 
for  the  number  of  natural  terraces  containing  hot  water  pools,  and  its  lakes  all  filled 
at  intervals  by  boiling  geysers  and  hot  springs,  but  the  formation  of  the  country 
was  considerably  altered  by  a  disastrous  volcanic  outbreak  in  1886,  its  beautiful 
pink  and  white  terraces  being  destroyed.  It  still  has,  however,  a  circular  rocky 
basin,  forty  feet  in  diameter,  in  which  a  violent  geyser  is  constantly  boiling  up  to 
the  height  of  ten  to  twelve  feet,  emitting  dense  clouds  of  steam.  This  is  one  of  the 
natural  wonders  of  the  southern  hemisphere  and  is  much  visited  by  tourists  traveling 
through  New  Zealand. 


WHAT  IS  A  GEYSER 


41 


Photo  by  Brown  Bros. 


(OLD  FAITHFUL"  IN  ERUPTION 


42  WHAT  KIND  OF  DOGS  ARE  PRAIRIE-DOGS 

What  Kind  of  Dogs  are  Prairie-Dogs? 

Prairie-dogs  are  not  really  dogs  at  all,  but  a  kind  of  a  squirrel  called  a  marmot. 
As  the  visitors  to  city  Zoological  Parks  already  know,  these  animals  make  little 
mounds  of  earth,  and  a  great  many  of  these  are  found  in  one  locality,  which  is  known 
as  a  "dog-town."  It  is  possible  to  travel  for  days  at  a  time  through  country  which 
is  dotted  over  with  mounds,  every  one  of  which  is  the  home  of  a  pair  or  more  of 
prairie-dogs.  These  mounds  are  usually  about  eighteen  feet  apart,  and  consist  of 
about  as  much  earth  as  would  fill  a  very  large  wheelbarrow.  This  is  thrown  up  by 
the  prairie-dog  when  he  digs  out  his  subterranean  home.  His  dwelling  sometimes 
has  one  entrance  and  sometimes  two,  and  there  are  many  much-traveled  paths 
between  the  different  hillocks,  showing  that  they  are  very  neighborly  and  sociable 
with  one  another. 

In  choosing  a  town  site,  they  select  one  which  is  covered  with  short,  coarse 
grass,  such  as  is  found  especially  in  fields  on  high  ground  and  mountain  sides,  for 
it  is  on  this  grass  and  certain  roots  that  the  prairie-dogs  feed.  On  the  plains  of 
New  Mexico,  where  for  miles  you  will  not  find  a  drop  of  water  unless  you  dig  down 
into  the  earth  for  a  hundred  feet  or  so,  with  no  rain  for  several  months  at  a  time, 
there  are  many  very  large  "  dog-towns,"  and  it  is,  therefore,  clear  that  they  are 
able  to  live  without  drinking,  obtaining  enough  moisture  for  their  needs  from  a 
heavy  fall  of  dew. 

At  about  the  end  of  October,  when  the  grass  dries  up  and  the  ground  becomes 
frozen  hard,  so  that  digging  is  out  of  the  question,  the  prairie-dog  creeps  into  his 
burrow,  blocking  up  the  opening  in  order  to  keep  out  the  cold  and  make  everything 
snug,  and  goes  to  sleep  until  the  following  spring,  without  having  had  to  lay  up  a 
store  of  food,  as  some  animals  do,  to  last  him  through  the  long,  hard  winter  months. 
If  he  opens  up  his  house  again  before  the  end  of  cold  weather,  the  Indians  say  it  is 
a  sure  sign  that  warmer  days  are  near  at  hand. 

If  one  approaches  very  cautiously  so  as  not  to  be  observed,  a  large  "dog-town" 
presents  a  very  curious  sight.  A  happy,  animated  scene  stretches  away  as  far  as 
the  eye  can  see.  Little  prairie-dogs  are  found  everywhere,  on  the  top  of  their 
mounds,  sitting  up  like  squirrels,  waving  their  tails  from  side  to  side  and  yelping 
to  each  other,  until  a  most  cheerful-sounding  concert  is  produced.  If  you  listen 
carefully,  as  you  draw  nearer,  however,  you  will  notice  a  different  tone  in  the  calls 
of  the  older  and  more  experienced  animals,  and  that  is  the  warning  signal  for  the 
whole  population  to  disappear  from  view  into  their  burrows.  Then,  if  one  hides 
quietly  in  the  background  and  waits  patiently  for  some  time,  sentinels  will  mount 
up  to  their  posts  of  observation  on  top  of  the  mounds  and  announce  that  it  is  safe 
to  come  out  of  their  burrows  and  play  about  again,  as  the  danger  is  past. 

What  is  Spontaneous  Combustion? 

Spontaneous  combustion  is  the  burning  of  a  substance  or  body  by  the  internal 
development  of  heat  without  the  application  of  fire. 

It  not  infrequently  takes  place  among  heaps  of  rags,  wool  and  cotton  when  sodden 
with  oil;  hay  and  straw  when  damp  or  moistened  with  water;  and  coal  in  the  bunkers 
of  vessels. 

In  the  first  case,  the  oil  rapidly  combines  with  the  oxygen  of  the  air,  this  being 
accompanied  by  great  heat.  In  the  second  case,  the  heat  is  produced  by  a  kind  of 
fermentation;  and  in  the  third,  by  the  pyrites  of  the  coal  rapidly  absorbing  and 
combining  with  the  oxygen  of  the  air. 

The  term  is  also  applied  to  the  extraordinary  phenomenon  of  the  human  body, 
which  has  been  told  of  some  people,  whereby  it  is  reduced  to  ashes  without  the  appli- 
cation of  fire.  It  is  said  to  have  occurred  in  the  aged  and  persons  that  were  fat  and 
hard  drinkers,  but  most  chemists  reject  the  theory  and  altogether  discredit  it. 


The  Story  in  the  Talking  Machine* 

As  far  back  as  1855  inventors  were  experimenting  with  talking  machines;  but 
nothing  practical  was  accomplished  till  1877,  when  Thomas  A.  Edison  constructed 
a  primitive  machine  capable  of  recording  and  reproducing  sounds.  In  the  early 
Edison  phonograph  the  sound  vibrations  were  registered  on  a  tinfoil-covered  cylinder. 
Busy  with  other  inventions,  he  postponed  developing  the  idea  of  a  talking  machine; 
and  meantime  other  brains  were  at  work  on  the  problem. 

In  1885  Chichester  A.  Bell  (cousin  of  Alexander  Graham  Bell,  of  telephone  fame) 
and  Charles  Sumner  Tainter  invented  the  "graphophone."  This  was  the  first 


FIRST  PRACTICAL  TALKING 
MACHINE 


ONE  OP  THE  EARLIER  TYPES  OF  SPRING 
MOTOR  GRAPHOPHONES 


practical  and  commercially  usable  talking  machine.  The  experiments  and  discoveries 
resulting  in  the  production  of  the  Bell  and  Tainter  graphophone  were  made  in  the 
laboratories  of  Alexander  Graham  Bell,  near  Washington,  D.  C.,  and  the  latter 
assisted  and  advised  with  the  inventors,  and  on  his  own  behalf  conducted  experiments 
which  were  productive  of  highly  important  results  in  the  art  of  recording  and  repro- 
ducing sound. 

The  Bell  and  Tainter  patent  was  granted  in  1886,  and  although  the  subject  of 
much  controversy,  it  has  been  repeatedly  sustained  by  the  United  States  courts, 
and  in  one  case  (87  F.  R.  873)  Judge  Shipman  had  to  consider  all  that  other  inventors 
had  done  or  attempted  to  do,  and  he  there  decided  that  Bell  and  Tainter  were  the 
first  to  make  "an  actual  living  invention  which  the  public  was  able  to  use." 

This  method  covered   "a  method  of  engraving  records  of  sound,  producing 

*  Illustrations  by  courtesy  of  the  Columbia  Graphophone  Co. 

(43) 


44  THE  STORY  IN  THE  TALKING  MACHINE 


OSCAR  SEAGLE,  THE  WELL-KNOWN  SOLOIST,  RECORDING 

The  artist  stands  before  the  horn  and  his  every  note  is 
recorded  with  a  fidelity  startling  in  the  extreme. 


THE  STORY  IN  THE  TALKING  MACHINE 


45 


records  of  sound  by  engraving  in  a  wax-like  material  which  would  permit  of  the 
handling,  using  and  transporting  of  the  record."  Another  United  States  patent, 
covering  a  method  of  duplicating  or  copying  sound  records,  was  granted  to  Charles 
Sumner  Tainter  in  1886. 

Of  course  the  talking 
machine  of  to-day  is  a 
long  way  removed  from 
the  early  Edison  and  the 
early  Bell  and  Tainter 
machines,  because  many 
master  minds  have  been 
working  on  the  problem 
of  developing  and  ma- 
turing the  art  of  sound 
recording  and  reproduc- 
ing, and  in  perfecting 
machines  to  be  used  in 
reproducing  the  sound 
records  after  they  have 
been  made. 

Disk  records  have 
taken  the  place  of  the 

old-style  cylinder  records,  the  latter  being  confined  for  the  most  part  to  dictating 
machines  for  office  use,  as  the  Dictaphone,  which  has  largely  displaced  the  short- 
hand writer  in  many  business  houses. 

Since  the  original  Thomas  A.  Edison  patents  and  the  Bell  and  Tainter  patent 


THE  MACDONALD  GRAPHOPHONE  GRAND 


IN  BAND  AND  ORCHESTRA  RECORDING  EACH  INSTRUMENT  is  AT  A  DIFFERENT  ELEVATION 


46 


THE  STORY  IN  THE  TALKING  MACHINE 


LEOPOLD  GODOWSKT,  ONE  OF  THE  WORLD'S  GREATEST 
PIANISTS,  MAKING  A  RECORD 

The  bell  at  the  left  is  rung  to  advise  the  artist  that 
the  recorder  is  ready  and  the  flashing  of  the  light  at  the 
right  is  the  signal  to  begin  playing. 


THE  STORY  IN  THE  TALKING  MACHINE 


47 


there  have  been  many  thousands  granted,  but  only  a  few  need  be  referred  to  as 
constituting  the  milestones  in  the  evolution  and  development  of  the  art  and  industry. 

First  in  point  of  time  and  importance  is  the  Macdonald  Spring  Motor,  the 
invention  of  Thomas  Hood  Macdonald,  a  prolific  inventor  and  contributor  of  many 
valuable  improvements  to  the  talking  machine  art  and  industry.  The  Bell  and 
Tainter  machine  was  operated  by  a  storage  battery  and  this  was  an  inconvenient 
and  expensive  form  of  power.  To  meet  this  condition  the  Macdonald  Spring  Motor 
was  invented  and  from  the  start  proved  a  tremendous  success.  Today  most  of  the 
clockwork  motor  talking  machines  are 
built  upon  the  principles  disclosed  in  the 
Macdonald  Spring  Motor  patent. 

The  next  important  step  was  the  dis- 
covery by  Macdonald  that  a  critical  speed 
for  the  surface  of  the  record  must  be  ob- 
tained in  order  to  secure  best  results,  and 
this  wonderful  principle  in  the  art  of 
sound  recording  was  protected  by  United 
States  patent  issued  to  Macdonald  cov- 
ering what  is  known  as  the  Macdonald 
Graphophone  Grand.  This  discovery 
and  invention  has  been  largely  instru- 
mental in  the  rapid  development  of 
sound  recording. 

Although  Bell  and  Tainter  disclosed 
a  method  of  recording  sound  on  a  flat 
surface,  all  of  the  earlier  forms  of  talking- 
machine  records  were  what  are  known  as 
cylindrical,  records  in  a  cylindrical  form. 
Later  the  disc  record  came  into  use  and 
is  now  the  most  popular  form.  Rela- 
tively very  few  cylinder  records  are  manu- 
factured at  the  present  time.  The  process 
of  sound  recording,  as  applied  to  disc 
records,  is  covered  by  United  States  pat- 
ent to  J.  W.  Jones,  and  marks  a  further 
important  stage  in  the  development  of 
the  art  and  industry. 

In  present-day  sound  recording  the 
operation  is  briefly  as  follows :  A  recording 
machine  is  employed  on  which  is  mounted 
a  rotating  turntable  carrying  a  wax-like 

disc  blank.  Suspended  above,  but  in  contact  with  the  surface  of  the  blank,  is  a 
recording  needle  or  stylus,  attached  to  a  diaphragm  which,  in  turn,  is  connected  to 
an  amplifying  horn.  The  horn  extends  beyond  the  machine  and  the  singer,  band  or 
orchestra  is  stationed  in  front  of  the  mouth  of  this  horn.  As  the  singer  interprets 
the  song  the  vibrations  set  up  by  the  singer's  voice  are  communicated  to  the  dia- 
phragm by  the  passage  of  the  sound  through  the  horn.  These  vibrations,  striking 
upon  the  diaphragm,  set  in  motion  the  recording  needle  or  stylus,  causirg  it  to  move 
rapidly,  and  its  motion  is  traced  upon  the  surface  of  the  rotating  disc  in  a  line  which 
is  known  as  the  sound  line.  Looked  at  with  the  naked  eye  this  line  has  the  appear- 
ance of  a  spiral  traced  upon  the  surface  of  the  wax-like  blank,  but  examined  under 
a  magnifying  glass  it  shows  myriad  little  indentations  or  grooves  in  the  wall  of  the 
sound  line.  These  indentations  correspond  to  the  vibrations  imparted  to  the  needle 


AN  UP-TO-DATE  TALKING  MACHINE  MODEL 


48  THE  STORY  IN  THE  TALKING  MACHINE 


INSTRUMENTAL  Music  is  RECORDED  AS  FAITHFULLY  AS  VOCAL 

Barrere,  the  great  flute  player  and  orchestra  leader,  is  shown 

making  a  popular  record. 


THE  STORY  IN  THE  TALKING  MACHINE  49 

through  the  diaphragm,  and  are  the  recorded  sounds  made  by  the  singer  or  band. 
When  the  song  or  selection  is  finished  the  surface  of  the  wax-like  blank  has  been 
covered  over  with  this  spiral  sound  line.  The  blank  has  become  the  "master  record," 
and  the  first  stage  of  producing  a  talking-machine  record  has  been  passed.  The 
next  step  is  to  secure  from  this  master  record  a  metallic  counterpart  or  shell.  This 
is  done  by  the  electro-plating  process.  When  the  shell  is  secured  the  next  step  is 
to  provide  a  matrix  which  serves  as  a  die  or  stamp  from  which  to  press  copies  or 
duplicates  of  the  master  record.  These  copies  or  duplicates  are  the  talking-machine 
records  which  the  public  ultimately  purchases.  The  matrix  or  die  is  placed  in  a  power 
press  and  the  records  pressed  from  the  material  used  in  making  the  sound  records. 
This  material  is  prepared  in  a  plastic  form  so  that  it  can  be  forced  under  pressure 
into  every  line  and  indentation  on  the  face  of  the  matrix. 

The  discovery  of  the  art  of  recording  and  reproducing  sound;  the  development 
of  that  art  into  a  giant  industry,  and  the  present-day  universal  sovereignty  of  the 
talking  machine  are  tributes  to  American  inventive  genius  and  American  industrial 
enterprise.  The  contributions  to  the  art  and  the  improvements  in  the  manufacture 
of  talking  machines  and  talking-machine  records  from  sources  outside  of  the  United 
States  have  been  very  unimportant.  The  industry  employs  many  thousands  of 
people  in  the  manufacture  of  these  instruments  and  records  which  afford  entertain-- 
ment,  instruction  and  amusement  to  the  entire  world 


What  are  Petrified  Forests? 

In  the  first  place,  petrification  is  the  name  we  give  to  the  animal  and  vegetable 
bodies  which  have,  by  slow  process,  been  converted  into  stone.  We  mean  very  much 
the  same  thing  when  we  refer  to  "Fossil  Forests." 

Although  in  most  instances  there  are  comparatively  few  traces  of  its  vegetable 
origin  left,  coal  owes  its  existence  primarily  to  the  vast  masses  of  vegetable  matter 
deposited  through  the  luxuriant  growth  of  plants  in  former  epochs  of  the  earth's 
history,  and  since  slowly  converted  into  a  petrified  state. 

Coal  fields  today  present  abundant  indications  of  the  existence  of  huge  ancient 
forests,  usually  in  the  form  of  coal  formed  from  the  roots  of  the  trees.  Several  such 
forests  have  been  uncovered,  of  which  one  in  Nova  Scotia  is  a  good  example,  remains 
of  trees  having  been  found  there,  six  to  eight  feet  high,  one  tree  even  measuring 
twenty-five  feet  in  height  and  four  feet  in  diameter. 

The  remains  of  a  fossil  forest  have  been  found  in  an  upright  position  in  France, 
and  in  a  colliery  in  England,  in  a  space  of  about  one-quarter  of  an  acre,  there  have 
been  found  the  fossilized  stumps  of  seventy-three  trees,  with  roots  attached,  and 
broken-off  trunks  lying  about,  one  of  them  thirty  feet  long  and  all  of  them  turned 
into  coal. 

A  remarkable  group  of  petrified  trees,  some  of  them  twelve  feet  in  diameter, 
exists  in  California,  and  another  in  Yellowstone  Park,  in  which  the  trees  are  still 
erect,  though  converted  into  stone.  An  extraordinary  forest  of  such  trees  has  been 
found  in  Arizona,  lying  over  a  wide  space  of  ground,  some  of  them  six  feet  in  diameter 
and  perfectly  preserved. 

^  These  trees  are  rather  mineralized  than  fossilized.  They  are  found  in  volcanic 
regions  and  are  supposed  to  be  due  to  the  action  of  hot  water,  which  carried  off  the 
organic  material  and  deposited  dissolved  silica  in  its  place.  In  some  instances  the 
wood  has  been  converted  into  solid  jasper  or  has  been  changed  into  opal  or  agate. 
or  filled  with  chalcedony  or  crystallized  quartz,  with  beautifully  variegated  colors. 


50 


WHAT  ARE  PETRIFIED  FORESTS 


§    2 

§    PQ 
m 
P 
H     | 

M  O 

- 


WHAT  ANIMALS  ARE  THE  BEST  ARCHITECTS        51 

What  Animals  are  the  Best  Architects? 

Animals  of  a  great  many  different  kinds  have  helped  show  man  the  way,  in 
taking  advantage  of  the  opportunities  which  nature  affords  him  to  feed,  clothe  and 
protect  himself,  but  one  of  the  smallest  of  the  animal  kingdom  is  probably  the  cleverest 
of  all — the  spider.  Spiders  have  many  different  kinds  of  enemies,  ranging  from  man 
down  to  the  very  smallest,  but  dangerous,  insects,  and  most  of  their  enemies  possess 
enormous  advantages  over  them  in  either  strength  or  agility,  or  both  combined; 
enemies  with  wings,  swift  in  movement  and  able  to  retreat  where  the  spider  cannot 
follow  them;  enemies  clad  in  an  impenetrable  coat  of  armor,  against  which  the 
spider's  weapons  are  powerless,  while  the  spider's  own  body  is  soft  and  vulnerable. 
These  handicaps  have  been  met  by  the  spider  with  a  multitude  of  clever  contrivances, 
and  if  invention  and  skill  are  to  be  regarded  as  an  index  to  intellectual  development, 
it  should  be  very  significant  to  realize  how  far  spiders  are  ahead  of  our  near  relatives, 
the  almost  human  members  of  the  monkey  family. 

One  of  the  most  interesting  of  the  spider  race  is  the  " trap-door"  spider  which 
inhabits  warm  countries  all  over  the  earth.  The  " trap-door"  spider  not  only  builds 
a  home  for  herself  by  digging  a  deep  hole  in  the  ground  and  lining  it  with  silk  to 
prevent  the  sides  from  falling  in,  but  she  also  adds  a  neat  little  door  to  keep  out  the 
rain  and  other  troublesome  things.  She  usually  chooses  sloping  ground  for  her 
homestead  so  that  the  door,  which  she  fastens  at  the  edge  of  its  highest  point  by 
a  strong  silk-elastic  hinge,  swings  shut  of  its  own  weight  after  being  opened.  She 
disguises  the  entrance  to  her  home  in  a  manner  superior  to  the  famous  art  of  con- 
cealment practiced  by  the  Indians,  by  planting  moss  on  the  outside  of  the  door — • 
living  moss  taken  from  the  immediate  neighborhood — so  that  the  entrance  to  her 
house  harmonizes  perfectly  with  its  surroundings,  its  discovery  being  made  more 
difficult  by  the  fact  that  in  her  careful  selection  of  a  site  for  her  dwelling  she  also 
appears  to  be  influenced  by  the  presence  of  patches  of  white  lichen  which  distract 
the  eye. 

The  male  spider  does  not  seem  to  take  any  part  in  designing,  constructing  or 
decorating  the  home  and  does  not  even  share  its  occupancy,  leaving  it  to  the  mother 
and  her  family — often  forty  or  more  children  at  a  time — and  living  a  vagrant  life, 
camping  out  in  holes  and  ditches  when  he  is  not  tramping  around  over  the  whole 
countryside.  The  mother  spider,  however,  like  many  other  animals,  takes  excellent 
charge  of  her  children,  and  guards  them  carefully  from  all  harm.  At  the  first  sign 
of  a  commotion  going  on  outside  her  front  door  she  is  known  to  invariably  assemble 
her  family  behind  her,  out  of  harm's  way,  and  then  place  her  back  against  the 
swinging  door,  holding  it  shut  with  some  of  her  feet  and  clinging  tightly  to  the  inner 
walls  of  her  home  with  the  others. 

There  is  one  kind  of  spider  which  has  developed  an  even  more  elaborate  style 
of  architecture,  digging  another  room  and  adding  an  upper  side  gallery  to  her  main 
residence,  and  placing  a  second  door  at  the  junction  of  the  two  tunnels.  The  doors 
are  made  to  swing  back  and  forth  in  both  directions,  and  she  constructs  a  handle 
on  the  outer  one,  by  which  she  fastens  it  open  with  a  few  threads  attached  to  any 
convenient  grass  stems  or  little  stones,  when  she  expects  to  come  home  from  a  hunting 
expedition  with  her  arms  full.  If  a  dangerous  enemy  threatens  her  home  she  usually 
retreats  to  the  second  room,  in  the  hope  that  he  will  decide  she  is  out  and  depart 
in  search  of  another  victim  elsewhere,  but  if  he  discovers  her  secret,  she  slams  the 
second  swinging  door  in  his  face.  Should  she  be  beaten  in  the  pushing  match  at 
that  point,  she  slips  into  the  upper  side  gallery  opening  above  the  door,  and  her 
enemy's  presence  within  the  inner  room  automatically  blocks  the  entrance  to  her 
hiding  place  by  holding  up  the  swinging  door  across  its  only  opening. 


The  Story  of  the  Motorcycle* 

Interest  in  the  development  of  mechanically  propelled  two-wheel  vehicles  began 
soon  after  the  introduction  of  the  bicycle  in  its  first  practicable  form.     Man's  natural 

dislike  for  manual  labor  quickly  found 
objection  to  the  physical  effort  of 
bicycle  travel,  and  accordingly  sought 
to  devise  mechanical  means  of  over- 
coming it. 

The  earliest  known  attempt  to 
construct  a  two-wheel  vehicle  which 
would  proceed  under  its  own  power  was 
made  by  W.  W.  Austin,  of  Winthrop, 
Mass.,  in  the  year  1868.  This  crude 
affair  consisted  of  a  small  velocipede 
upon  which  was  mounted  a  crude  coal- 
burning  steam  engine.  The  piston 
rods  of  the  engine  were  connected 
directly  with  cranks  on  the  rear  wheel. 
The  boiler  was  hung  between  the  two 
wheels  and  directly  back  of  the  saddle, 
while  the  engine  cylinders  were  placed 
slightly  above  horizontal  just  behind 
the  boiler.  Despite  the  crudity  of 
this  outfit,  Austin  claimed  that  he  had 
traveled  some  2,200  miles  on  this, 


COPELAND  MODEL,  1884 


the  "granddaddy"  of  all  motorcycles. 
L.  D.  and  W.  E.  Copeland,  two 

Californian  experimenters,  are  credited 

with  the  next  known  effort  to  produce  a  two-wheeler  which  would  travel  by  its  own 
power.   Their  first  model  appeared  in  1884.    The  bicycle  to  which  this  miniature  steam- 


AUSTIN  STEAM  VELOCIPEDF,  1868 


ROPER'S  MACHINE,  1886 


power  plant  of  the  Copeland  brothers'  invention  was  attached  was  one  of  the  old 
high-wheel  models  with  the  small  steering  wheel  forward.  The  steam  engine  of  this 
truly  ingenious  contrivance,  together  with  the  boiler  and  the  driving  pulley,  weighed 

*  Illustrations  by  courtesy  of  thoHendee  Manufacturing  Co. 

(52) 


THE  STORY  OF  THE  MOTORCYCLE 


53 


only  sixteen  ounces.  The  Copeland  model  was  probably  the  first  motorcycle  to 
use  belt  drive.  It  should  be  understood  that  propulsion  of  this  first  Copeland  model 
was  not  intended  to  depend  solely  upon  mechanical  power,  but  to  be  operated  in 
connection  with  the  foot  pedals. 

The  Copeland  brothers  are  to  be  credited  with  the  first  attempt  to  produce  the 
motorcycle  upon  a  commercial  basis,  but  their  efforts  were  unsuccessful.      Their 
invention  seemed  to  be  far  ahead  of 
the   times,  and   their  project  passed 
by  unappreciated. 

In  1886,  S.  H.  Roper,  of  Roxbury, 
Mass., appeared  with  a  steam-propelled 
bicycle  which  consisted  of  a  specially 
designed  engine  placed  in  a  bicycle 
frame  of  the  type  with  which  we  are 
familiar  today.  This  invention  was 
awkward,  and  its  weight  of  150  pounds 
made  it  difficult  to  handle,  but  in  spite 
of  that  its  inventor  is  said  to  have 
obtained  considerable  use  from  it. 

The  year  1895  saw  the  first  public 
exhibition  of  mechanically  operated 
two-wheel  vehicles  held  at  Madison 
Square  Garden,  New  York  City.  The  sensation  of  the  show  was  a  motorcycle 
which  was  presented  by  E.  J.  Pennington  of  Cleveland.  This  was  the  first  public 
appearance  of  a  cycle  propelled  by  a  combustion  engine,  and  in  that  regard 
it  may  be  called  the  first  appearance  of  the  motorcycle  in  the  form  that  it 
is  known  today.  The  Pennington  machine  was  the  first-known  vehicle  to  attempt 


THE  PENNINGTON  MOTORCYCLE,  1895 


HEDSTROM  MOTOR  TANDEM,  1898 

the  use  of  gasoline.  History  fails  to  relate  a  great  deal  about  the  mechanical 
detail  of  the  Pennington  model,  but  it  is  said  to  have  made  a  very  creditable  per- 
formance in  exhibition.  It  appeared  at  the  Madison  Square  Garden  in  two  forms, 
as  a  single  motorcycle  and  as  a  motor  tandem. 

There  was  little  or  no  interest  in  motor  vehicles  of  any  description  in  that  period 
of  the  early  nineties,  consequently  the  Pennington  efforts  were  fruitless.     Portly 


54 


THE  STORY  OF  THE  MOTORCYCLE 


A  BIG  TWIN  MODEL 


AN  UP-TO-DATE  "FEATHERWEIGHT"  MODEL 


THE  STORY  OF  THE  MOTORCYCLE 


55 


after  the  public  exhibition  of  his  models,  financial  difficulties  are  said  to  have  over- 
taken Pennington  and  he  is  reported  to  have  departed  suddenly  for  foreign  climes, 
bringing  his  experiments  to  an  abrupt  end. 

Along  in  the  late  nineties  a  keen  interest  in  bicycle  racing  led  to  the  introduc- 
tion of  what  is  known  as  the  motor-paced  tandem.     This  consisted  of  a,  regulation 
tandem  bicycle  on  which  was  mounted  a  gasoline  motor  geared  up  to  the  rear  wheel 
with   a   chain   drive.     The  tandem  rider 
on  the  forward  seat  did  the  steering  and  the 
foot  pedaling,  and  the  rear  rider  operated 
the  motor.       It  is  believed  that  the  first 
of   these  tandems   came  over  here  from 
France. 

By  1898  the  popularity  of  the  motor- 
paced  racing  bicycle  became  so  great  that 
attention  was  soon  directed  toward  their 
manufacture.  Chief  among  the  bicycle 
manufacturers  who  took  up  the  making 
of  the  motor-paced  tandem  was  Oscar 
Hedstrom,  a  racer  with  many  notable 
victories  to  his  credit.  He  believed  that  he 
could  make  a  motor  tandem  which  would 
prove  far  superior  to  any  other  American 
machine  made,  if  not  better  even  than  any 
foreign  machine. 

The  machine  which  he  produced  with  a  motor  of  his  own  design  was  entered 
in  some  big  races  at  the  Pan-American  Exposition  in  Buffalo  in  1901  where  nearly 
every  record  was  broken.  Mr.  Hedstrom's  partner  on  this  tandem  outfit  was 
Henshaw,  a  bicycle  racer  of  some  repute.  Following  their  debut  on  the  motor  tandem 
at  Buffalo,  this  pair  proceeded  to  make  records  throughout  the  country,  several  of 
which  still  stand  today. 

In  1901  a  bicycle  manufacturer  of  Springfield,  Mass.,  foresaw  a  future  for  a 
motorcycle  designed  for  pleasure  purposes  instead  of  exclusively  for  racing.  Hitherto, 

all  motor-propelled  cycles  had  used  the 


CRADLE  SPRING  FRAME  CONSTRUCTION 


power  of  the  engine  of  whatever  form  it 
was  merely  as  an  aid  to  locomotion. 
None  had  been  successful  in  producing 
a  machine  that  could  proceed  anywhere 
solely  under  its  own  power.  Convinced 
that  such  a  machine  could  be  produced, 
and  certain  that  it  would  find  a  ready 
market,  this  manufacturer  set  about  to 
put  his  ideas  into  execution. 

He  recognized  in  Oscar  Hedstrom,  as 
the  leader  of  the  motor  tandem  racing 
field,  the  man  who  knew  more  about  com- 
bustion engines  than  any  other  man  in 

America,  and  accordingly  enlisted  his  services.  Oscar  Hedstrom  retired  to  a  little 
mechanical  laboratory  in  Middletown,  Conn.,  and  in  a  short  four  months  emerged 
with  a  completed  motorcycle  which  he  had  not  only  designed  himself,  but  had  con- 
structed entirely  by  his  own  labor.  Its  performance  on  its  first  trial  trip  was 
absolutely  astounding  to  every  observer.  In  road  tests  under  every  conceivable 
condition,  this  first  motorcycle  of  Oscar  Hedstrom's  displayed  a  perfection  of 
mechanical  operation  which  had  to  that  time  never  been  approached.  It  moved 


FIRST  HEDSTROM  MOTORCYCLE  WITH  TRI-CAR, 
1902 


56 


THE  STORY  OF  THE  MOTORCYCLE 


entirely  under  its  own  power,  could  climb  hills  and  could  travel  on  the  level  road 
at  speeds  which  had  never  before  been  exhibited  by  vehicles  of  that  type. 

By  reason  of  the  successful  performance  of  his  first  motorcycle,  Oscar  Hedstrom 
is  given  the  credit,  in  many  quarters,  for  producing  the  first  motorcycle  of  practicable 
construction.  All  successful  machines  of  this  type  since  then  are  said  to  have  been 
modeled  more  or  less  on  the  fundamental  principles  of  that  first  Hedstrom  machine. 
Part  of  Hedstrom's  success  was  due  to  his  mastery  of  the  important  problem  of 
carburetion,  and  a  carburetor  expressly  designed  for  that  first  machine  constituted 
a  marked  step  in  motorcycle  development.  The  leading  carburetors  of  today  are 
said  to  be  based  upon  the  principles  of  the  first  Hedstrom  carburetor.  The  date  of 
the  appearance  of  the  first  Hedstrom  motorcycle  was  1901. 

Manufacture  of  the  motorcycle  upon  a  commercial  scale  forthwith  commenced 
in  the  bicycle  manufactory  at  Springfield,  Mass.  Such  is  said  to  have  been  the 
humble  beginning  of  the  motorcycle. 

Their  first  motorcycle  was  offered  to  the  public  in  1902.     Itsjnechanical  detail 


inr 


MODERN  "SIDE-CAR"  MODEL 


is  worthy  of  note  for  the  sake  of  comparison  with  the  models  of  the  current  year. 
Its  motor  was  the  Hedstrom  single-cylinder  motor  of  1%  horse-power;  frame,  22 
inches;  tires,  1%  inches,  single  tube;  chain  drive;  weight,  93  pounds.  From  the 
year  1902  to  1909,  the  style  of  their  motorcycle  remained  substantially  the  same  in 
appearance.  The  models  of  that  period  are  referred  to  as  "camel  backs"  by  reason 
of  the  location  and  shape  of  the  gasoline  tank  on  the  rear  mud  guard.  In  1909,  the 
loop  frame  was  introduced  to  provide  additional  strength  to  the  machine,  being 
required  by  the  increased  weight  of  the  motor;  1906  saw  the  introduction  of  twin 
cylinders  for  racing  models,  and  the  following  year  they  appeared  in  the  regular 
models. 

Motorcycle  design  has  made  wonderful  progress.  The  powerful,  easy-riding 
machines  of  today  with  their  many  refinements  are  truly  marvelous  pieces  of 
mechanism.  Mechanical  perfection  is  as  nearly  approached  as  it  is  possible  for 
the  best  brains  and  the  most  approved  methods  of  manufacture  to  attain.  There 
are  numerous  modern  refinements  which  have  contributed  materially  to  the  present- 


THE  STORY  OF  THE  MOTORCYCLE 57 

day  popularity  of  the  motorcycle  that  are  worthy  of  special  note.  Chief  of  these 
is  the  kick-starter,  which  enables  the  rider  to  start  the  engine  of  his  machine  without 
mounting  it  upon  a  stand  or  pedaling  on  the  road.  Improved  clutches,  gear  ratios 
which  permit  varying  speeds,  double-braking  systems  and  electric  lights  are  present- 
day  refinements  which  add  zest  to  the  sport  of  motorcycling. 

One  of  the  greatest  of  all  motorcycling  comfort  creations  is  a  device  known 
as  the  cradle  spring  frame  which  consists  of  pairs  of  cushion-leaf  springs  of  the 
semi-elliptical  type,  which  are  located  at  the  rear  of  the  frame  just  beneath  the  saddle. 
This  affords  the  maximum  of  riding  comfort  by  the  elimination  of  all  jar  and  jolt 
occasioned  by  an  uneven  roadway. 

Magneto  ignition  first  appeared  in  1908;  previous  to  that  date  all  ignition  had 
been  dependent  upon  batteries  of  the  ordinary  dry-cell  variety. 

The  last  two  years  has  seen  the  introduction  of  what  is  known  as  the  light-weight 
model.  This  style  of  motorcycle  has  a  smaller  motor,  which  is  usually  of  the  two- 
stroke  type,  single  cylinder.  The  frame  is  of  lighter  construction,  the  mechanism 





MODERN  DELIVERY  VAN  FOR  GROCERS,  DRUGGISTS,  ETC. 

is  simpler,  and  of  course  the  speed  is  reduced.  This  type  of  two-wheeler,  however, 
finds  favor  among  those  who  like  power  and  speed  but  in  modified  form.  Lower 
initial  cost  and  lower  operation  expense  are  factors  which  especially  recommend 
the  light-weight  models. 

There  has  been  considerable  difference  of  opinion  as  regards  the  comparative 
efficiency  of  chain  drive  and  belt  drive.  The  consensus  of  opinion,  however,  seems 
to  favor  the  chain  drive,  as  evidenced  by  its  use  on  most  of  the  leading  makes  of 
present-day  machines.  Some  of  the  light-weight  models  are  using  belt  drive,  but 
chain  drive  is  generally  conceded  to  be  superior.  In  the  early  days  of  motorcycling, 
belt  drive  was  rather  generally  used,  but  the  heavy  duty  required  soon  brought 
about  the  change  to  present  usage. 

Motorcycle  manufacture  is  today  carried  on  in  some  of  the  largest  and  most 
up-to-date  manufactories  that  can  be  found  in  the  United  States.  The  oldest  and 
the  largest  factory  devoted  to  motorcycle  manufacture  is  said  to  be  that  which  has 
been  built  up  under  the  direction  of  the  Springfield  manufacturer,  the  man  who  first 
saw  the  great  commercial  possibilities  in  the  development  of  the  motorcycle  for 
pleasure  and  business  purposes.  His  company  had  a  capitalization  of  $12,500,000 


58 THE  STORY  OF  THE  MOTORCYCLE 

in  1916.  Some  2,400  skilled  workmen  were  employed  in  its  two  big  Springfield 
)lants.  Its  output,  said  to  be  the  largest  in  the  industry,  is  over  25,000  machines 
per  year.  Numerous  models  meeting  varying  requirements  are  produced. 

Soon  after  the  first  practicable  motorcycle  appeared  in  1902  there  arose  a 
demand  for  a  contrivance  that  would  accommodate  an  additional  passenger.  Conse- 
quently, there  was  produced  an  attachment  called  a  tri-car.  This  was  mounted 
on  two  pneumatic-tired  wheels  which  were  fitted  to  the  front  fork  together  with 
necessary  steering  devices.  Later  it  was  found  that  the  passenger  conveyance  could 
better  be  carried  at  the  side  mounted  upon  a  springed  chassis  which  was  supported 
by  a  third  wheel.  That  form  was  thereupon  generally  adopted,  and  remains  today 
the  general  practice  in  the  manufacture  of  motorcycle  side-cars,  as  they  are  called. 

Naturally  enough,  interest  in  motorcycles  was  quickly  directed  toward  their 
application  to  commercial  uses,  and  to  that  end  there  were  produced  numerous  styles 
of  side  vans  and  parcel  carriers  intended  for  parcel  delivery. 

The  use  of  the  motorcycle  for  commercial  purposes  was  for  a  time  overshadowed 
by  the  abnormally  rapid  development  of  the  automobile,  but  the  factor  of  upkeep 
and  operation  costs  of  an  automobile  is  bringing  the  motorcycle  into  prominence 
now.  In  this  respect  the  motorcycle  is  said  to  have  the  advantage  overwhelmingly. 
The  tendency,  however,  among  business  houses  is  to  investigate  their  individual 
requirements  for  delivery  service  and  determine  to  what  purposes  either  form  of 
motor  vehicle  is  best  adapted.  For  light  parcel  system  there  is  said  to  be  no  form 
of  delivery  that  excels  the  motorcycle  in  speed  and  efficiency  and  nothing  with  opera- 
tion costs  so  low.  The  commercial  motorcycle  is  said  to  be  gaming  widespread 
favor,  and  therein  lies  its  greatest  future. 

Foreign  countries  have  contributed  little  or  nothing  to  the  development  of 
the  motorcycle,  To  be  sure,  efforts  were  made  to  produce  two-wheel  motor  vehicles, 
but  little  success  is  recorded.  Record  of  the  earliest  known  effort  was  found  in  an 
English  newspaper  of  1876.  This  report,  however,  was  very  meager  and  lacking  in 
any  profusion  of  mechanical  detail.  Moreover,  beyond  the  newspaper  reports  there 
is  little  verification  that  any  steps  were  really  taken  at  that  time.  The  French  con- 
tribute the  only  known  features  that  are  credited  to  foreign  inventors.  The  DeDion 
motor  was  used  in  some  of  the  racing  motor  tandems  which  appeared  in  this  country 
in  the  late  nineties.  Other  French  racing  bicycles  were  no  doubt  in  existence,  but  there 
is  no  history  which  can  ascribe  any  truly  constructive  innovations  in  motorcycle 
making  to  any  foreign  country.  The  motorcycle  in  its  form  of  today  was  designed 
and  built  by  America. 


How  is  the  Weather  Man  Able  to  Predict  Tomorrow's  Weather? 

The  Weather  Bureau  was  founded  in  1870  by  the  United  States  Government, 
itsjpurpose  being  to  make  daily  observations  of  the  state  of  the  weather  in  all  parts 
of  the  country,  and  to  calculate  from  the  results  a  forecast  for  each  section  of  the 
country,  based  on  the  information  thus  obtained,  these  predictions  being  published 
so  that  the  people  of  each  district  may  know  in  advance  the  kind  of  weather  likely 
to  occur. 

"  While  these  forecasts  are  of  great  convenience  to  practically  everyone,  and  of 
importance  to  the  agriculturist,  they  are  frequently  of  still  more  importance  to  ship 
masters,  storm  warnings  being  given  that  may  keep  them  in  port  when  storms  are 
expected  and  thus  save  their  ships  from  the  danger  of  injury  or  shipwreck.  This 
system  has  made  great  progress  since  its  institution,  and  reports  are  now  received 
daily  from  more  than  3,500  land  stations  and  about  fifty  foreign  stations,  while  by 
means  of  wireless  telegraphy,  under  normal  conditions,  some  2,000  ships  send  reports 
of  the  weather  conditions  at  sea. 


HOW  IS  THE  WEATHER  PREDICTED 


59 


I  fv 

OH        DQ  "^ 

1| 

*|! 

i-a 
g^ 


g'-S 

b^ 

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1! 

^S 


w 


60 HOW  THE  WEATHER  IS  PREDICTED 

Study  of  results  has  led  to  the  belief  that  more  than  eighty  per  cent  of  winds 
and  storms  follow  beaten  paths,  their  movements  being  governed  by  physical  condi- 
tions, a  knowledge  of  which  enables  the  Weather  Bureau  officials  to  estimate  very 
closely  then*  probable  speed  and  direction  and  send  warning  of  their  coming  in 
advance.  Within  two  hours  after  the  regular  morning  observation  at  eight  o'clock, 
the  forecasts  are  telegraphed  to  more  than  2,300  principal  distributing  points,  from 
which  they  are  further  sent  out  by  mail,  telegraph  and  telephone,  being  mailed 
daily  to  135,000  addresses  and  received  by  nearly  4,000,000  telephone  subscribers. 

One  of  the  most  valuable  services  rendered  is  that  of  the  warnings  of  cyclonic 
storms  for  the  benefit  of  marine  interests.  These  are  displayed  at  nearly  three 
hundred  points  on  the  ocean  and  lake  coasts,  including  all  important  ports  and 
harbors,  warnings  of  coming  storms  being  received  from  twelve  to  twenty-four 
hours  in  advance.  The  result  has  been  the  saving  of  vast  amounts  of  maritime 
property,  estimated  at  many  millions  of  dollars  yearly. 

Agriculturists  also  derive  great  advantage  from  these  warnings,  especially  those 
engaged  in  the  production  of  fruits,  vegetables  and  other  market  garden  products. 
Warnings  of  frosts  and  of  freezing  weather  have  enabled  the  growers  of  such  pro- 
ducts to  protect  and  save  large  quantities  of  valuable  plants.  It  is  said  that  on  a 
single  night  in  a  small  district  in  Florida,  fruits  and  vegetables  were  thus  saved  to 
the  amount  of  more  than  $100,000.  In  addition,  live  stock  of  great  value  has  been 
saved  by  warnings  a  week  in  advance  of  the  coming  of  a  flood  in  the  Mississippi; 
railroad  companies  take  advantage  of  the  forecast  for  the  preservation,  in  their 
shipping  business,  of  products  likely  to  be  injured  by  extremes  of  heat  or  cold,  and 
in  various  other  ways  the  forecasts  are  of  commercial  or  other  value. 

One  of  the  chief  stations  for  observations  is  that  at  Mount  Weather,  in  the 
Blue  Ridge  Mountains  of  Virginia.  This  is  equipped  with  delicate  instruments  in 
considerable  variety  for  the  study  of  varying  conditions  of  the  upper  air.  Kites 
and  captive  balloons  are  sent  up  every  favorable  day,  ascending  to  heights  of  two 
or  three  miles,  and  equipped  with  self-registering  instruments  to  record  the  tempera- 
ture and  other  conditions  of  the  atmosphere.  At  other  times,  free  balloons  are 
liberated,  carrying  sets  of  automatic  registering  instruments.  Some  of  these  travel 
hundreds  of  miles,  but  nearly  all  are  eventually  found  and  returned. 

How  does  a  Siren  Fog  Horn  Blow? 

There  are  a  great  many  different  kinds  of  signals  for  the  guidance  of  vessels 
during  fogs,  when  lights  or  other  visible  signals  cannot  be  perceived. 

One  of  the  most  powerful  signals  is  the  siren  fog  horn,  the  sound  of  which  is 
produced  by  means  of  a  disk  perforated  by  radial  slits  made  to  rotate  in  front  of 
a  fixed  disk  exactly  similar,  a  long  iron  trumpet  forming  part  of  the  apparatus.  The 
disks  may  each  contain  say  twelve  slits,  and  the  moving  disk  may  revolve  2,800  times 
a  minute;  in  each  revolution  there  are  of  course  twelve  coincidences  between  the 
slits  in  the  two  disks;  through  the  openings  thus  made  steam  or  air  at  a  high  pres- 
sure is  caused  to  pass,  so  that  there  are  actually  33,600  puffs  of  steam  or  compressed 
air  every  minute.  This  causes  a  sound  of  very  great  power,  which  the  trumpet  collects 
and  compresses,  and  the  blast  goes  out  as  a  sort  of  sound  beam  in  the  direction 
required.  Under  favorable  circumstances  this  instrument  can  be  heard  from  twenty 
to  thirty  miles  out  at  sea. 

Fog  signals  are  also  used  on  railways  during  foggy  weather;  they  consist  of 
cases  filled  with  detonating  powder,  which  are  laid  on  the  rails  and  exploded  by 
the  engine  when  it  runs  over  them. 


The  Story  in  a  Watch* 

Clocks  and  watches  are  often  called  "timekeepers,"  but  they  do  not  keep  time. 
Nothing  can  keep  it.  It  is  constantly  flying  along,  and  carrying  us  with  it,  and  we 
cannot  stop  it.  What  we  call  "time  keepers"  are  really  time  measures,  and  are 
made  to  tell  us  how  rapidly  time  moves,  so  that  we  may  regulate  our  movements 
and  occupations  to  conform  to  its  flight. 

Of  course,  you  understand  that  measurement  of  anything  is  the  comparing  of 
it  with  some  established  standard.  So  that  if  you  want  to  measure  the  length  of 
anything  you  use  a  rule  or  a  yard  stick,  or  some  other  scale  which  is  graduated  into 
fractions  of  the  whole  standard  measure.  Do  you  know  that  the  United  States 
government  has  in  a  secure,  fireproof  vault,  in  one  of  the  government  buildings  in 
Washington,  a  metal  bar  which  is  the  authorized  standard  "yard"  of  this  nation? 
It  is  a  very  carefully  made  copy  of  the  standard  yard  of  Great  Britain.  I  believe 
that  each  one  of  the  United  States  has  also  a  standard  which  must  agree  in  length 
with  the  government,  or  national  standard.  The  same  thing  is  true  concerning 
standards  of  capacity,  and  standards  of  weight.  But  no  vault  can  contain  the 
authorized  standard  of  time.  Yet  there  is  such  a  standard.  And  it  is  as  accessible 
to  one  country  as  to  another,  and  it  is  a  standard  which  does  not  change.  But, 
because  all  other  time  measures  are  more  or  less  imperfect,  our  government  tries 
to  compare  its  standard  clock  with  the  ultimate  standard  every  day. 

The  first  mention  of  time  which  we  have  is  found  in  the  Book  of  Genesis,  where 
it  is  written  "and  the  evening  and  the  morning  were  the  first  day."  That  state- 
ment gives  a  "measure"  which  was  sufficient  for  the  purpose  intended,  but  there 
is  nothing  very  accurate  in  it.  If  it  had  said  "the  darkness  and  the  light"  were  the 
first  day,  it  would  have  been  just  as  accurate.  The  people  who  lived  in  those  far- 
off  days  had  no  special  occasion  to  know  or  to  care  what  time  it  was.  We  may 
suppose  that  they  were  hungry  when  they  waked  at  sunrise,  and  if  they  had  no  food 
"left  over"  from  the  previous  day's  supply  they  would  have  to  hustle  and  find 
some,  and  if  possible  secure  a  little  surplus  beyond  that  day's  needs,  and  so  they  would 
work,  or  hunt,  until  the  "evening"  came  and  the  sun  disappeared.  When  a  man 
was  tired,  and  the  sun  was  hot,  he  sat  down  under  a  tree  for  shelter  and  rest.  As 
he  sat  under  the  tree  and  looked  about  him  he  could  not  fail  to  notice  that  upon  the 
ground  was  a  shadow  of  the  tree  under  which  he  sat.  And  as  he  was  tired  and  warm 
he  lay  down  and  fell  asleep,  and  when  he  woke,  he  again  saw  the  shadow,  but  in 
another  place.  He  noticed  that  the  same  thing  occurred  every  day.  He  saw  also 
that  in  the  morning  the  shadow  was  stretched  out  in  one  direction,  and  that  in  the 
evening  it  lay  in  exactly  the  opposite  direction,  and  that  every  day  it  moved  very 
nearly  the  same,  so  he  put  a  mark  on  the  ground  about  where  the  shadow  first  appeared, 
and  another  mark  at  the  place  where  it  disappeared.  Then  one  day  he  stuck  his 
staff  in  the  ground  about  half-way  between  the  places  of  the  morning  and  the  evening 
shadows,  which  served  as  a  noon  mark.  As  the  staff  cast  a  shadow  as  readily  as 
did  the  tree,  the  man  found  that  it  was  really  a  better  index  of  time  than  was  the 
tree  shadow,  for  it  was  much  smaller  and  more  clearly  defined,  and  so  he  put  up  a 
straight  stick  in  the  ground  near  the  hut  in  which  he  hVed,  and  as  the  ground  was 
level  and  smooth  he  drove  a  lot  of  little  stakes  along  the  daily  path  of  the  shadow, 
and  in  that  way  divided  the  day  into  a  number  of  small  parts.  That  was  a  crude 
"sun  dial."  (The  Bible  tells  of  the  sun  dial  in  the  thirty-eighth  chapter  of  Isaiah.) 
But  there  was  nothing  very  accurate  in  the  sun  dial.  Several  hundred  years  later 

•"Courtesy  of  the  Waltham  Watch  Company,  and  "  The  American  Boy." 

(61) 


62 


THE  STORY  IN  A  WATCH 


THE  STORY  IN  A  WATCH 63 

the  days  were  divided  into  sections  which  were  called  " hours, "  such  as  the  "sixth 
hour"  (noon),  the  " ninth  hour"  (three  o'clock),  the  " eleventh  hour"  (five  o'clock), 
etc.  There  was,  however,  nothing  very  accurate  in  those  expressions,  which  simply 
indicate  that  there  were  recognized  divisions  of  time,  but  with  no  suggestions  as 
to  the  means  used  to  determine  their  limits  or  boundaries.  It  is  recorded  of  Alfred 
the  Great,  who  lived  in  the  ninth  century,  A.  D.,  that  he  was  very  methodical  in 
his  employment  of  time,  and  in  order  to  insure  a  careful  attention  to  his  religious 
duties  as  well  as  his  kingly  duties,  he  divided  the  day  into  three  parts,  giving  one 
part  to  religious  duties,  one  to  the  affairs  of  his  kingdom,  and  the  remainder  to  bodily 
rest.  To  secure  an  equal  division  of  the  day  he  procured  a  definite  quantity  of  wax 
which  he  had  made  into  six  candles,  of  twelve  inches  in  length,  and  all  of  uniform 
weight,  for  he  found  that  each  inch  in  length  of  candle  would  burn  for  twenty  minutes 
— one  candle  for  each  four  hours.  This  was  an  approach  toward  accuracy  and  it 
was  effective  for  night  use  as  well  as  for  the  daytime. 

Perhaps  the  earliest  mechanical  time  measure  was  the  clepsydra,  or  water 
clock.  It  is  quite  probable  that,  in  its  earliest  form  it  consisted  of  a  vessel  containing 
water,  which  was  allowed  to  escape  through  a  small  orifice.  Suitable  marks,  or 
graduations,  on  the  sides  of  the  vessel  served  to  indicate  the  lapse  of  time  as  the 
water  gradually  receded.  This  device  was  constructed  in  a  variety  of  forms,  some 
of  which  employed  some  simple  mechanism  also;  but  from  their  nature  they  could 
not  give  very  accurate  indications  concerning  the  passage  of  time.  The  "hour 
glass"  was  another  form  of  time  indicator,  which  was  capable  of  uniform,  though 
extremely  limited,  action.  It  is  said  that  its  original  use  was  to  limit  the  length  of 
sermons. 

It  is  interesting  to  note  that  discoveries  and  inventions,  which  may  seem  slight 
in  themselves,  sometimes  form  the  basis  of,  or  contribute  to,  other  important  inven- 
tions. In  the  year  1584  a  bright  young  Italian  was  sitting  in  the  gallery  of  the 
cathedral,  in  the  City  of  Pisa,  and  as  the  lofty  doors  of  the  building  opened  to  admit 
the  incoming  worshipers,  a  strong  draft  of  air  caused  the  heavy  chandelier,  which 
was  suspended  from  the  lofty  ceiling,  to  swing  quite  a  distance  from  its  position 
of  rest.  This  unusual  movement  attracted  the  attention  of  the  young  man,  and 
as  he  continued  to  watch  its  deliberate  movements,  he  did  more  than  watch.  He 
thought — for  he  noticed  that  the  time  occupied  by  the  movement  of  the  chandelier 
from  one  extreme  position  to  the  opposite  point,  seemed  to  be  exactly  uniform.  He 
wondered  why.  It  is  the  careful  observation  of  things,  and  the  trying  to  learn  why 
they  are  as  they  are,  and  why  they  act  as  they  do,  that  enables  studious  people  to 
discover  the  laws  which  govern  their  actions.  This  young  man,  Galileo,  was  a  thinker, 
and  while  some  of  his  conclusions  and  theories  have  since  been  found  erroneous,  his 
thinking  has  formed  the  basis  of  much  of  the  scientific  thought  and  theory  of  later 
years.  Galileo's  swinging  chandelier  was  really  a  sort  of  a  pendulum,  and  we  have 
made  mention  of  it  because  it  has  been  found  that  no  mechanical  means  for  obtaining 
and  maintaining  a  constant  and  accurate  movement  will  equal  the  free  movement 
of  a  vibrating  pendulum.  This  fact  has  led  to  its  adoption  as  a  means  of  regulating 
the  mechanism  of  clocks.  For,  when  operated  under  the  most  favorable  conditions, 
such  a  clock  constitutes  the  most  accurate  "time  measure"  yet  made. 

Watches  are  made  to  measure  time.  If  anything  is  to  be  measured  there  must 
be  some  standard  with  which  to  compare  it,  for  we  have  seen  that  measuring  is  a 
process  of  comparing  a  thing  with  an  appropriate  or  acknowledged  and  fixed  standard. 
The  only  known  standard  for  the  measurement  of  time  is  the  movement  of  the  earth 
in  relation  to  the  stars.  It  has  taken  thousands  of  years  for  mankind  to  learn  what 
is  now  known  concerning  time.  It  has  also  taken  hundreds  of  years  to  secure  the 
wonderful  accuracy  in  the  measuring  of  time  which  has  now  been  attained.  We 
have  said  that  nothing  has  been  devised  which  will  equal  the  accuracy  of  a  "pendu- 


64 


THE  STORY  IN  A  WATCH 


THE  STORY  IN  A   WATCH 


65 


lum  clock."     A  story  was  told  of  a  professor  of  a  theological  seminary  who  was  one 
day  on  his  way  to  a  jeweler's  store,  carrying  in  his  arms  the  family  clock,  which 
was  in  need  of  repairs.     He  was  accosted  by  one  of  his  students  with  the  question, 
"Look  here,  Professor,  don't  you  think  it  would  be  much  more  convenient  to  carry 
a  watch?"     A  pendulum  clock  must  of  necessity  be  stationary,  but  it  is  now  needful 
that  people  should  be  able  to  have  a  timepiece 
whenever  and  wherever  wanted.     This  need  is 
supplied  by  the  pocket  watch. 

If  Galileo  watched  the  swinging  of  the  big 
chandelier  long  enough  he  found  that  the 
distance  through  which  it  swung  was  gradually 
diminishing,  till,  at  last,  it  ceased  to  move ;  what 
stopped  it?  It  was  one  of  the  great  forces  of 
nature,  which  we  call  gravitation,  and  the  force 
which  kept  it  in  motion  we  call  momentum. 
But  gravitation  overcame  momentum. 

In  order  to  maintain  the  constant  vibration  of  a  pendulum  it  is  needful  to  impart 
to  it  a  slight  force,  in  a  manner  similar  to  that  given  by  a  boy  who  gives  another  boy 
a  slight  "push,"  to  maintain  his  movement  in  a  swing.  A  suspended  pendulum  being 
impossible  of  application  to  a  pocket  watch,  a  splendid  substitute  has  been  devised— 
in  the  form  of  the  balance  wheel  of  the  watch,  commonly  called  the  "balance."  The 
balance  is,  in  its  action  and  adaption,  the  equivalent  of  the  vibrating,  or  oscillating, 
pendulum;  and  the  balance  spring  (commonly  called  the  hairspring),  which  accom- 
panies it,  is  in  its  action  equivalent  to  the  force  of  gravity  in  its  effect  upon  a  pendulum. 
For  the  tendency  and  (if  not  neutralized  by  some  other  force)  the  effects  of  the 


TIME  TRAIN  OP  A  WATCH 


JXlain,  Wfa.vC.atwi 


Jl-  6-  s/hjjem6tect. 


hairspring  upon  tiie  watch  balance,  and  of  gravitation  on  the  pendulum,  are  to  hold 
each  at  a  position  of  rest,  and  consequent  inaction. 

But  we  have  in  a  pocket  watch  a  "mainspring"  to  actuate  the  train  of  gear 
wheels  which  by  their  ultimate  action  give  the  delicate  "push"  to  the  balance  wheel 
at  distinct  intervals,  and  so  keep  the  balance  in  continued  motion.  In  the  same 
manner,  the  "weight"  of  a  clock,  acting  through  the  force  of  gravity,  carries  the 
various  wheels  of  the  clock  train,  and  gives  the  slight  impulse  to  the  swinging  clock 
pendulum. 

Both  clocks  and  watches  are  "machines"  for  the  measurement  of  time,  and, 
therefore,  it  is  absolutely  imperative  that  their  action  must  be  constant,  and,  if 
accurate  time  is  to  be  indicated,  the  action  must  be  uniform. 

The  illustration  shows  the  "time  train"  of  an  ordinary  pocket  watch.  The 
various  wheels  are  here  shown  in  a  straight  line,  so  that  their  successive  order 


66 


THE  STORY  IN  A  WATCH 


INTERIOR  OP  ASTRONOMICAL  OBSERVATORY,  SHOWING  TRANSIT  INSTRUMENT.   USED  TO  OBTAIN 
CORRECT  LOCAL,  TIME.  BY  OBSERVING  THE  PASSAGE  OF  STARS  ACROSS  THE  MERIDIAN 


THE  STORY  IN  A  WATCH 


67 


may  be  seen,  but  for  economy  and  convenience  they  are  arranged  in  such  way  as  is 
most  convenient  when  constructing  a  pocket  watch.  The  large  wheel  at  the  left  is  the 
"main  wheel,"  called  by  watchmakers  the  "barrel."  In  it  is  coiled  the  mainspring — 
a  strip  of  steel  about  twenty-three  inches  long,  which  is  carefully  tempered  to  insure 
elasticity  and  "pull."  The  outer  end  of  the  mainspring  is  attached  to  the  rim  of 
the  barrel,  and  the  inner  end  to  the  barrel  arbor.  Bear  in  mind  the  fact  that  the 
power  which  is  sufficient  to  run  the  watch  for  thirty-six  hours  or  more,  is  not  in 
the  watch  itself.  It  is  in  yourself,  and  by  the  exertion  of  your  thumb  and  finger, 
in  the  act  of  winding,  you  transfer  that  power  to  the  spring,  and  thereby  store  the 
power  in  the  barrel,  to  be  given  out  at  the  rate  which  the  governing  mechanism  of 
the  watch  will  permit.  The  group  of  wheels  here  shown  are  known  as  the  "tune 
train,"  and  the  second  wheel  is  called  the  "center,"  because  that,  in  ordinarily  con- 
structed watches,  is  located  in  the  center  of  the  group,  and  upon  its  axis  are  put  the 
"hour  hand"  and  the  "minute  hand."  On  the  circumference  of  the  barrel  are  gear 
teeth,  and  those  teeth  en- 
gage corresponding  teeth  on 
the  arbor  of  the  center. 
These  arbor  teeth  are  in  all 
cases  called,  not  "wheels" 
but  "pinions,"  and  in  watch 
trains  the  wheels  always 
drive  the  pinions.  Next  to 
the  center  comes  the  third 
pinion  and  wheel,  and  then 
the  fourth,  which  is  the  last 
wheel  in  the  train  which  has 
regular  gear  teeth.  Now  let 
us  look  back  a  little  and 
see  that  the  wheel  teeth  of 
the  barrel  drive  the  center 
pinion,  and  the  center  wheel 
drives  the  third  pinion  and 
the  third  wheel  drives  the 
etc.  The 


BALANCE  COCK  AND  PATENT  MICRO-METRIC  REGULATOR; 
ALSO  BALANCE  WHEEL  AND  HAIR  SPRING,  SHOWING  PATENT 
HAIR  SPRING  STUD 


fourth  pinion, 
speed  of  revolution  of  the 
successive  wheels  increases 
rapidly.  The  center  wheel  must  revolve  once  in  each  hour,  which  is  6J^  times 
faster  than  the  barrel.  The  third  wheel  turns  eight  times  faster  than  the  center, 
and  the  fourth  wheel  turns  7^  times  faster  than  the  third,  or  60  times  faster  than, 
the  center,  so  that  the  fourth  pinion,  which  carries  the  "second  hand,"  will  revolve 
60  times  while  the  "center,"  which  carries  the  minute  hand,  revolves  once.  If  we 
should  put  all  the  wheels  and  pinions  in  place,  and  wind  up  the  main  spring,  the 
wheels  would  begin  to  turn,  each  at  its  relative  rate  of  speed,  and  we  should  find 
that,  instead  of  running  thirty-six  hours,  it  would  have  run  less  than  two  minutes. 
What  was  needed  was  some  device  to  serve  as  an  accurate  speed  governor — and 
the  attainment  of  this  essential  device  is  the  one  thing  on  which  accurate  time 
measuring  depends.  Without  any  mention  of  the  various  attempts  to  produce  such 
a  device,  let  us,  as  briefly  as  possible,  describe  the  means  used  in  most  watches  of 
American  manufacture.  While  there  are  several  distinct  parts  of  this  device,  each 
having  its  individual  function,  they  may  be  considered  as  a  whole  under  the  general 
term  of  "the  escapement."  Returning  now  to  the  fourth  pinion,  we  see  that  it  also 
carries  a^  wheel,  which  engages  another  little  pinion,  called  the  escape  pinion.  This 
escape  pinion  also  carries  a  wheel,  but  it  is  radically  different  in  appearance,  as  well 


68 


THE  STORY  IN  A  WATCH 


THE  STORY  IN  A  WATCH 


69 


as  in  action,  from  any  of  the  previously  mentioned  wheels.  An  examination  of 
the  " escape  wheel"  would  show  that  it  has  a  peculiarly  shaped  piece,  which  is  called 
the  "pallet,"  the  extended  arm  of  which  is  called  the  "fork."  The  fork  encloses  a 
sort  of  half-round  stud  or  pin.  This  stud  projects  from  the  fact  and  near  the  edge 
of  a  small  steel  disc.  The  stud  is  formed  from  some  hard  precious  stone  and  is 
called  the  "jewel  pin,"  or  "roller  pin,"  and  the  little  steel  disc  which  carries  it  is 
called  the  "roller."  In  the  center  or  axial  hole  of  the  roller  fits  the  "balance  staff," 
which  staff  also  carries  the  "balance  wheel,"  and  the  balance  spring,  commonly  called 
the  "hair  spring."  The  ends  of  the  balance  staff  are  made  very  small  so  as  to  form 
very  delicate  pivots  which  turn  in  jewel  bearings.  The  balance  wheel  moves  very 
rapidly,  and,  therefore,  its  movement  must  be  as  free  as  possible  from  retarding 
friction,  so  its  bearing  pivots  are  made  very  small. 

Now  that  we  have  given  the  names  of  each  of  the  different  parts  which  com- 
pose the  escapement,  let  us  see  how  they  perform  their  important  work  of  governing 


BALANCE  flfiM. 


FIG  3. 


"PufiCBT, 


BALANCE 
AND  HOLLERS, 
ASSEMBLED. 


DRIVING /N  TOOL. 


DfiMMG  Our  TOOL. 


Wawn  TAPER  SHOULDER  DenxmEBam  SWF. 


the  speed  of  the  little  machine  for  measuring  time.  In  the  escape  wheel,  the  left 
arm  of  the  pallet  rests  on  the  inclined  top  of  one  of  the  wheel  teeth.  This  is  the 
position  of  rest.  If  we  wind  up  the  mainspring  of  the  watch  it  will  immediately  cause 
the  main  wheel  to  turn,  and,  of  course,  that  will  turn  the  next  wheel,  and  so  on  to 
the  escape  wheel.  When  that  wheel  turns  to  the  right,  as  it  must,  it  will  force  back 
the  arm  of  the  pallet  which  swings  on  its  arbor.  In  swinging  out  in  this  way  it  must 
also  swing  in  the  other  pallet  arm,  and  that  movement  will  bring  it  directly  in  front 
of  another  wheel  tooth,  so  that  the  wheel  can  turn  no  further.  It  is  locked  and  will 
remain  so  until  something  withdraws  it.  When  the  pallet  was  swung  so  as  to  cause 
this  locking,  the  fork  was  also  moved,  and  as  it  enclosed  the  roller  pin,  that  too  was 
moved  and  carried  with  it  the  roller  and  the  balance  wheel,  and  in  so  doing  it 
deflected  the  hair  spring  from  its  condition  of  rest.  And  as  the  spring  tried  to  get 
back  to  its  place  of  rest  it  carried  back  the  balance  also.  In  going  back,  the  balance 
acquired  a  little  momentum,  and  so  could  not  stop  when  it  reached  its  former  posi- 
tion, but  went  a  little  further,  and,  of  course,  the  roller  and  its  pin  also  went  along 
in  company,  the  pin  carrying  the  fork  and  the  pallet  swinging  in  the  other  direction, 


70 


THE  STORY  IN  A  WATCH 


which  unlocked  the  escape  wheel  tooth.  Its  inclined  top  gave  the  pallet  a  little 
"push"  so  that  the  first  pallet  was  locked,  forcing  the  fork  and  roller,  and  the  balance 
and  hair  spring,  to  move  in  the  opposite  direction.  And  so  the  alternate  actions 
proceed,  and  the  balance  wheel  travels  further  each  time,  until  it  reaches  the  greatest 
amount  which  the  force  of  the  mainspring  can  give.  But  before  this  extreme  is 
reached,  the  momentum  of  the  revolving  balance  carries  the  roller  pin  entirely  out 
of  the  fork.  As  the  fork  is  allowed  to  move  only  just  far  enough  to  allow  the  pin 
to  pass  out,  it  simply  waits  until  the  fork  returns  and  enters  its  place,  only  to  escape 


ACCURATE  MEASUREMENTS  ARE  ESSENTIAL  TO  CORRECT  TIME  KEEPING 

again  on  the  other  side.  And  so  the  motions  continue  to  the  number  of  18,000  times 
per  hour.  If  that  number  can  be  exactly  maintained,  the  watch  will  measure  time 
perfectly.  But  if  it  should  fall  short  of  that  exact  number  only  once  each  hour,  it 
would  result  in  a  loss  of  4.8  seconds  each  day,  or  2.4  minutes  in  one  month.  A  watch 
as  bad  as  that  would  not  be  allowed  on  a  railroad. 

Isn't  it  wonderful  that  such  a  delicate  piece  of  mechanism  can  be  made  to  run 
so  accurately?  And  the  wonder  is  increased  by  the  fact  that  the  little  machine  is, 
to  a  great  extent,  continually  moved  about,  and  liable  to  extreme  changes  in  posi- 
tion and  in  temperature.  Watches  of  the  highest  grades  are  adjusted  to  five  posi- 
tions as  well  as  to  temperature.  Some  are  adjusted  to  temperature  and  three 
positions,  and  still  others  to  temperature  only.  The  way  in  which  a  watch  is  made 
to  automatically  compensate  for  temperature  changes  is  interesting.  Varying 


THE  STORY  IN  A  WATCH 


71 


degrees  of  heat  and  cold  always  affect  a  watch.  It  is  a  law  of  nature  that  all  simple 
metals  expand  under  the  influence  of  heat  and  therefore  contract  when  affected  by 
cold.  Alloys,  or  mixtures  of  different  metals,  act  in  a  similar  manner,  but  in  varying 
degrees.  Some  combinations  of  metals  possess  the  quality  of  relatively  great 
expansibility.  Another  natural  law  is  that  the  force  required  to  move  a  body 
depends  upon  its  size  and  weight.  So  it  follows  that  with  only  a  certain  amount 
of  available  force  a  large  body  cannot  be  moved  as  rapidly  as  a  small  one.  The 
force  of  200  pounds  of  steam  in  a  lo  omotive  boiler  might  be  sufficient  to  haul  a 
train  of  six  cars  at  a  speed  of  thirty  miles  per  hour,  but  if  more  cars  be  added  it  will 
result  in  a  slower  speed.  The  same  principle  applies  to  a  watch  as  to  a  railway  train. 
Therefore  if  the  balance  wheel  becomes  larger  as  it  grows  warmer,  and  the  force 


170  PARTS  COMPOSE  A  16  SIZE  WATCH  MOVEMENT.     (A  LITTLE  MORE  THAN  K 

ACTUAL  SIZE) 

which  turns  the  wheel  is  not  changed,  the  speed  of  movement  must  be  reduced 
One  other  natural  law  which  affects  the  running  of  watches  is  this:  Variations  in 
temperature  affect  the  elasticity  of  metals.  Now  the  balance  spring  of  a  watch 
is  made  from  steel,  and  is  carefully  tempered  in  order  to  obtain  its  highest  elasticity. 
Increase  in  temperature  therefore  introduces  three  elements  of  disturbance,  all  of 
which  act  in  the  same  direction  of  reducing  the  speed.  First,  it  enlarges  the  balance 
wheel;  second,  it  increases  the  length  of  the  spring;  third,  it  reduces  the  elasticity 
of  the  spring.  To  overcome  these  three  disturbing  factors  a  very  ingenious  form  of 
balance  has  been  devised. 

A  watch  balance  is  made  with  a  rim  of  brass  encircling  and  firmly  united  to 
the  rim  of  steel.  In  order  to  permit  heat  to  have  the  desired  effect  upon  this  balance, 
the  rim  is  completely  severed  at  points  near  each  of  the  arms  of  the  wheel.  If  we 


72 THE   STORY  IN  A  WATCH 

apply  heat  to  this  balance  the  greater  expansion  of  the  brass  portion  of  its  rim  would 
cause  the  free  ends  to  curl  inward. 

In  order  to  obtain  exactly  18,000  vibrations  of  the  balance  in  an  hour,  it  will 
be  seen  that  the  weight  of  the  wheel  and  the  strength  of  the  hair  spring  must  be 
perfectly  adapted  each  to  the  other.  The  shorter  the  spring  is  made  the  more  rigid 
it  becomes,  and  so  the  regulator  is  made  a  part  of  the  watch,  but  its  action  must  be 
very  limited  or  its  effect  on  the  spring  will  introduce  other  serious  disturbances. 
The  practical  method  of  securing  the  proper  and  ready  adaptation  of  balances  to 
springs  is  to  place  in  the  rims  of  the  balance  a  number  of  small  screws  having  rela- 
tively heavy  heads.  Suppose  now  that  we  have  a  balance  fitted  with  screws  of  the 
number  and  weight  to  exactly  adapt  it  to  a  spring,  so  that  at  a  normal  temperature 
of,  say,  70  degrees,  it  would  vibrate  exactly  18,000  times  per  hour.  When  we  place 
the  watch  in  an  oven  the  heat  of  which  is  95  degrees,  we  might  find  that  it  had  lost 
seven  seconds.  That  would  show  that  the  wheel  was  too  large  when  at  95  degrees, 
although  just  right  at  70  degrees.  Really,  that  is  a  very  serious  matter — it  would 
lose  at  the  rate  of  2%  minutes  in  a  day.  But  after  all  it  need  not  be  so  very  serious, 
because  if  we  change  the  location  of  one  screw  on  each  half  of  the  balance  so  as  to 
place  it  nearer  the  free  end  of  the  rim  when  the  heat  curls  the  rim  inward,  it  will 
carry  a  larger  proportion  of  the  weight  than  if  the  screws  had  not  been  moved.  It 
may  require  repeated  trials  to  determine  the  required  position  of  the  rim  screws, 
and  both  skill  and  good  judgment  are  essential.  It  will  be  readily  understood  that 
numerous  manipulations  of  this  kind  constitute  no  small  items  in  the  cost  of  producing 
high-grade  watches. 

Large  quantities  of  the  cheaper  class  of  watches  are  now  made  by  machinery 
in  the  United  States,  Switzerland,  France,  Germany  and  England.  They  are  generally 
produced  on  the  interchangeable  system,  that  is,  if  any  part  of  a  watch  has  become 
unfit  for  service,  it  can  be  cheaply  replaced  by  an  exact  duplicate,  the  labor  of  the 
watch  repairer  thus  becoming  easy  and  expeditious. 


How  does  a  Monorail  Gyroscope  Railway  Operate? 

The  last  decade  has  brought  a  railway  with  a  single  line  of  rails,  on  which  the 
car  is  kept  erect  by  the  steadying  power  of  a  pair  of  heavy  gyroscopes,  or  flywheels, 
rotating  in  opposite  directions  at  very  high  velocity.  There  are  two  recent  inven- 
tions of  this  kind,  an  English  and  a  German,  practically  the  same  in  character. 

The  English,  the  invention  of  an  Australian  named  Brennan,  had  its  first  form 
in  a  model,  a  small  car  on  which  the  gyroscopes  rotated  at  the  enormous  speed  of 
seventy-five  hundred  revolutions  per  minute.  They  were  hung  in  special  bearings 
and  rotated  in  a  partial  vacuum,  the  friction  being  so  slight  that  the  wheels  would 
continue  to  revolve  and  give  stability  to  the  car  for  a  considerable  time  after  the 
power  was  shut  off.  Also,  in  such  a  case,  supports  at  the  side  kept  the  car  from 
overturning.  This  model  showed  itself  capable  of  traveling  at  high  speed  on  a  single 
rail,  rounding  sharp  curves  and  even  traversing  with  ease  a  wire  cable  hung  in  the  air. 

In  1909  a  car  was  tried  fourteen  feet  long  and  ten  feet  wide,  capable  of  carrying 
forty  passengers.  The  gyroscopes  in  this,  moved  by  a  gasoline  engine,  revolved  in 
a  vacuum  at  a  speed  of  three  thousand  rotations  a  minute.  They  were  three  and  a 
half  feet  in  diameter  and  weighed  together  one  and  a  half  tons.  With  a  full  load  of 
passengers,  this  car  sped  easily  around  a  circular  rail  two  hundred  and  twenty  yards 
long  and  proved  that  it  could  not  be  upset,  since  when  all  the  passengers  crowded 
to  one  side  the  car  remained  firmly  erect,  the  gyroscopes  lifting  it  on  the  weighted 
sides.  It  is  claimed  that  in  the  monorail  system  so  equipped  with  the  gyroscope, 
a  speed  of  more  than  a  hundred  miles  an  hour  is  possible  with  perfect  safety. 


MONORAIL  GYROSCOPE  RAILWAY 


73 


i. 


I 

I 


74 MONORAIL  GYROSCOPE  RAILWAY 

The  German  invention,  displayed  by  Herr  Schorl,  a  capitalist  of  Berlin,  is  in 
many  respects  like  the  English  one.  The  experimental  car  was  eighteen  feet  long 
and  four  feet  wide,  the  gyroscopic  flywheels  being  very  light,  weighing  but  a  hundred 
and  twenty-five  pounds  each,  while  their  speed  of  rotation  was  eight  thousand  per 
minute.  The  same  success  was  attained  as  in  the  English  experiments,  and  there 
seems  to  be  a  successful  future  before  this  very  interesting  vehicle  of  travel.  There 
is  also  another  type  of  monorail  of  overhead  construction,  the  wheels  running  on 
the  rail  from  which  the  car  hangs. 

The  fundamental  principle  of  the  gyroscope  lies  in  the  resistance  which  a  fly- 
wheel in  rapid  motion  presents  to  any  change  of  direction  in  the  axis  of  rotation. 

The  gyroscope  has  been  utilized  to  give  steadiness  to  vessels  in  rough  seas,  and 
Sperry  has  made  considerable  progress  in  this  country  in  applying  it  to  give  stability 
to  an  aeroplane.  One  of  the  most  successful  of  the  recent  applications  of  the  gyro- 
scope is  in  its  connection  with  the  marine  compass.  All  battleships  in  the  United 
States  Navy  are  now  fitted  with  the  gyroscopic  compass.  As  a  gyro  compass  is 
independent  of  the  magnetism  of  the  earth  and  of  the  ship,  and,  when  running 
properly,  always  points  to  the  North  Pole,  its  great  convenience  in  vessels  carrying 
heavy  guns  and  armor,  the  attraction  of  which  would  materially  interfere  with  the 
operation  of  the  ordinary  type  of  compass,  is  at  once  apparent.  Another  important 
use  of  the  gyroscope  is  found  in  its  relation  to  the  vertical  and  horizontal  steering 
gear  of  the  naval  torpedo,  especially  the  Whitehead  pattern.  Its  first  application 
to  this  purpose  was  made  by  an  officer  in  the  Austrian  navy  in  1895,  and  this  device, 
or  an  improved  modification  of  it,  such  as  the  Angle  Gyroscope,  invented  by  Lieut. 
W.  I.  Chambers  of  the  United  States  Navy,  is  in  use  on  all  torpedoes. 

Why  are  Finger-prints  Used  for  Identification? 

Tne  plan  of  identifying  people  by  their  finger-prints,  although  at  first  used  only 
on  criminals,  is  now  put  to  many  other  uses.  It  was  introduced  originally  in  India, 
where  it  was  of  very  great  assistance  to  the  British  authorities  in  impressing  the 
natives  with  the  fact  that  at  last  no  evasion  of  positive  identification  of  culprits 
was  possible.  It  was  later  taken  up  by  the  Scotland  Yard  authorities  in  England, 
and  its  use  has  since  spread  to  practically  every  country  in  the  civilized  world. 

It  has  been  proven,  to  the  entire  satisfaction  of  everyone  who  has  ever  made 
a  careful  study  of  the  subject,  that  every  human  being  has  a  marking  on  his  or  her 
fingers  which  is  different  from  that  of  any  other  person  on  earth.  Not  only  is  it  sure 
that  no  one  else  has  a  thumb  or  finger  marked  like  yours,  but  it  has  also  been  estab- 
lished beyond  dispute  that  every  little  detail  will  continue  peculiar  to  your  fingers 
as  long  as  you  have  them. 

There  are  many  ways  in  which  this  knowledge  is  used  to  advantage;  two  methods 
now  employed  are  particularly  valuable.  It  is  seldom  that  an  unpremeditated  crime 
is  committed  without  its  author  leaving  finger-marks  on  some  object  which  is  uncon- 
sciously touched,  such  as  silver  plate,  cash  boxes  or  safes,  glassware  or  windows, 
polished  wood-work,  etc.,  and  very  often  the  professional  criminal  also  neglects  to 
take  precautions  against  leaving  his  signature  behind  him.  It  is  then  a  simple  matter 
for  the  police  to  collect  such  marks  for  comparison  with  the  finger  prints  of  anyone 
to  whom  suspicion  may  be  directed. 

The  plan  has  also  been  utilized  a  great  deal  in  recent  years  for  the  identifica- 
tion of  enlisted  men  in  the  army  and  navy.  Finger-prints  are  made,  immediately 
upon  enlistment,  of  each  separate  finger  and  thumb  of  both  hands.  Group  impres- 
sions are  also  taken  with  the  four  fingers  of  each  hand  pressed  down  simultaneously. 
When  needed  for  any  particular  purpose,  such  finger-prints  are  usually  enlarged  by 
means  of  a  special  camera,  to  five  times  their  natural  size. 


The  Story  in  a  Rifle* 

How  It  Began. 

A  naked  savage  found  himself  in  the  greatest  danger.  A  wild  beast,  hungry 
and  fierce,  was  about  to  attack  him.  Escape  was  impossible.  Retreat  was  cut  off. 
He  must  fight  for  his  life — but  how? 

Should  he  bite,  scratch  or  kick?  Should  he  strike  with  his  fist?  These  were 
the  natural  defenses  of  his  body,  but  what  were  they  against  the  teeth,  the  claws 
and  the  tremendous  muscles  of  his  enemy?  Should  he  wrench  a  dead  branch  from 
a  tree  and  use  it  for  a  club?  That  would  bring  him  within  striking  distance  to  be 
torn  to  p  ece  before  he  could  deal  a  second  blow. 

There  was  but  a  moment  in  which  to  act.  Swiftly  he  seized  a  jagged  fragment 
of  rock  from  the  ground  and  hurled  it  with  all  his  force  at  the  blazing  eyes  before 
him;  then  another,  and  another,  until  the  beast,  dazed  and  bleeding  from  the  unex- 
pected blows,  fell  back  and  gave  him  a  chance  to  escape.  He  knew  that  he  had 
saved  his  life,  but  there  was  something  else  which  his  dull  brain  failed  to  realize. 

He  had  invented  arms  and  ammunition! 

In  other  words,  he  had  needed  to  strike  a  harder  blow  than  the  blow  of  his  fist, 
at  a  greater  distance  than  the  length  of  his  arm,  and  his  brain  showed  him  how  to 
do  it.  After  all,  what  is  a  modern  rifle  but  a  device  which  man  has  made  with  his 
brain  permitting  him  to  strike  an  enormously  hard  blow  at  a  wonderful  distance? 
Firearms  are  really  but  a  more  perfect  form  of  stone-throwing,  and  this  early  Cave 
Man  took  the  first  step  that  has  led  down  the  ages  to  the  present-day  arms  and 
ammunition. 

This  strange  story  of  a  development  that  has  been  taking  place  slowly  through 
thousands  and  thousands  of  years,  so  that  today  you  are  able  to  take  a  swift  shot 
at  distant  game  instead  of  merely  throwing  stones. 

The  Earliest  Hunters. 

The  Cave  Man  and  his  descendants  learned  the  valuable  lesson  of  stone- 
throwing,  and  it  made  hunters  of  them,  not  big-game  hunters — that  was  far  too 
risky;  but  once  in  a  while  a  lucky  throw  might  bring  down  a  bird  or  a  rabbit  for 
food.  And  so  it  went  on  for  centuries,  perhaps.  Early  mankind  was  rather  slow  of 
thought. 

At  last,  however,  there  appeared  a  great  inventor — the  Edison  of  his  day. 

He  took  the  second  step. 

A  Nameless  Edison. 

We  do  not  know  his  name.  Possibly  he  did  not  even  have  a  name,  but  in  some 
way  he  hit  upon  a  scheme  for  throwing  stones  farther,  harder  and  straighter  than 
any  of  his  ancestors. 

The  men  and  women  in  the  Cave  Colony  suddenly  fcund  that  one  bright-eyed 
young  fellow,  with  a  little  straighter  forehead  than  the  others,  was  beating  them  all 
at  hunting.  During  weeks  he  had  been  going  away  mysteriously,  for  hours  each 
day.  Now,  whenever  he  left  the  camp  he  was  sure  to  bring  home  game,  while  the 
other  men  would  straggle  back  for  the  most  part  empty-handed. 

Was  it  witchcraft?    They  decided  to  investigate. 

*  Illustrations  by  courtesy  of  the  Remington  Arms-Union  Metallic  Cartridge  Company,  unless  otherwise  indicated. 

(75) 


THE  STORY  IN  A  RIFLE 


THE  FIRST  MISSILE 
The  Cave  Man  of  prehistoric  times  unconsciously  invented  arms  and  ammunition. 


THE  STORY  IN  A  RIFLE 77 

What  They  Saw. 

Accordingly,  one  morning  several  of  them  followed  at  a  careful  distance  as  he 
sought  the  shore  of  a  stream  where  water-fowl  might  be  found.  Parting  the  leaves, 
they  saw  him  pick  up  a  pebble  from  the  bank  and  then,  to  their  surprise,  take  off  his 
girdle  of  skin  and  place  the  stone  in  its  center,  holding  both  ends  with  his  right  hand. 

Stranger  still,  he  whirled  the  girdle  twice  around  his  head,  then  released  one 
end  so  that  the  leather  strip  flew  out  and  the  stone  shot  straight  at  a  bird  in  the  water. 

The  mystery  was  solved.    They  had  seen  the  first  slingman  in  action. 

The  Use  of  Slings. 

The  new  plan  worked  with  great  success,  and  a  little  practice  made  expert 
marksmen.  We  know  that  most  of  the  early  races  used  it  for  hunting  and  hi  war. 
We  find  it  shown  in  pictures  made  many  thousands  of  years  ago  in  ancient  Egypt 
and  Assyria.  We  find  it  in  the  Roman  army  where  the  slingman  was  called  a 
"funditor." 

We  find  it  in  the  Bible  where  it  is  written  of  the  tribe  of  Benjamin:  "Among  all 
these  people  there  were  seven  hundred  chosen  men  left-handed ;  every  one  could  sling 
a  stone  at  an  Jiair  breadth  and  not  miss. "  Surely,  too,  you  remember  the  story  of 
David  and  Goliath  when  the  young  shepherd  "prevailed  over  the  Philistine  with 
a  sling  and  with  a  stone. " 

Today  shepherds  tending  their  flocks  upon  these  same  hills  of  Syria  may  be 
seen  practicing  with  slings  like  those  of  David.  Yes,  and  slings  were  used  in  European 
armies  until  nearly  a  hundred  years  after  America  was  discovered. 

Something  Better. 

Yet  they  had  their  drawbacks.  A  stone  slung  might  kill  a  bird  or  even  a  man, 
but  it  was  not  very  effective  against  big  game. 

What  was  wanted  was  a  missile  to  pierce  a  thick  hide. 

Man  had  begun  to  make  spears  for  use  in  a  pinch,  but  would  you  like  to  tackle 
a  husky  bear  or  a  well-horned  stag  with  only  a  spear  for  a  weapon? 

No  more  did  our  undressed  ancestors.  The  invention  of  the  greatly  desired 
arm  probably  came  about  in  a  most  curious  way. 

Long  ages  ago  man  had  learned  to  make  fire  by  patiently  rubbing  two  sticks 
together,  or  by  twirling  a  round  one  between  his  hands  with  its  point  resting  upon  a 
flat  piece  of  wood.  , 

In  this  way  it  could  be  made  to  smoke,  and  finally  set  fire  to  a  tuft  of  dried 
moss,  from  which  he  might  get  a  flame  for  cooking.  This  was  such  hard  work  that 
he  bethought  him  to  twist  a  string  of  sinew  about  the  upright  spindle  and  cause  it 
to  twirl  by  pulling  alternately  at  the  two  string  ends,  as  some  savage  races  still  do. 
From  this  it  was  a  simple  step  to  fasten  the  ends  of  the  two  strings  to  a  bent  piece 
of  wood,  another  great  advantage,  since  now  but  one  hand  was  needed  to  twirl  the 
spindle,  and  the  other  could  hold  it  in  place.  This  was  the  "bow-drill"  which  also 
is  used  to  this  day. 

A  Fortunate  Accident. 

But  bent  wood  is  apt  to  be  springy.  Suppose  that  while  one  were  bearing  on 
pretty  hard  with  a  well-tightened  string,  in  order  to  bring  fire  quickly,  the  point 
of  the  spindle  should  slip  from  its  block.  Naturally,  it  would  fly  away  with  some 
force  if  the  position  were  just  right. 

This  must  have  happened  many  times,  and  each  time  but  once  the  fire-maker 
may  have  muttered  something  under  his  breath,  gone  after  his  spindle,  and  then 


78 


THE  STORY  IN  A  RIFLE 


THE  SLINQ  MAN  IN  ACTION 
Practice  developed  some  wonderful  marksmen  among  the  users  of  this  primitive  weapon. 


THE  STORY  IN  A  RIFLE 


79 


settled  down  stupidly  to  his  work.  He  had  had  a  golden  chance  to  make  a  great 
discovery,  but  didn't  realize  it. 

But,  so  it  has  been  suggested,  there  was  one  man  who  stopped  short  when  he 
•  lost  his  spindle,  for  a  red-hot  idea  shot  suddenly  through  his  brain. 

He  forgot  all  about  his  fire-blocks  while  he  sat  stock  still  and  thought. 

Once  or  twice  he  chuckled  to  himself  softly.  Thereupon  he  arose  and  began  to 
experiment. 

He  chose  a  longer,  springier  piece  of  wood,  bent  it  into  a  bow,  and  strung  it  with 
a  longer  thong.  He  placed  the  end  of  a  straight  stick  against  the  thong,  drew  it 
strongly  back  and  released  it. 

The  shaft  whizzed  away  with  force  enough  to  delight  him,  and,  lo,  there  was  the 
first  bow-and-arrow! 


What  Came  of  It. 

After  that  it  was  merely  a  matter  of  improvement, 
to  slip  from  the  string  until  some  one  thought  to  notch  it. 


The  arrow-end  was  apt 
Its  head  struck  with  such 


force  that  the  early  hunter  decided  to  give  it  a  sharp  point,  shaped  from  a  flake  of 
flint,  in  order  that  it  might  drive  deep  into  the  body  of  a  deer  or  bear. 

But,  most  of  all,  it  must  fly  true  and  straight  to  its  mark.  Who  of  all  these  simple 
people  first  learned  to  feather  its  shaft?  Was  it  some  one  who  had  watched  the 
swift,  sure-footed  spring  of  a  bushy-tailed  squirrel  from  branch  to  branch?  Possibly, 
for  the  principle  is  the  same.  At  all  events  with  its  feathers  and  its  piercing  point 
the  arrow  became  the  most  deadly  of  all  missiles,  and  continued  to  be  until  long 
after  the  invention  of  firearms. 

A  Great  Variety. 

It  is  interesting  to  see  how  many  different  forms  of  bow  were  used.  The  English 
had  a  six-foot  "Jong  bow"  made  of  yew  or  ash,  in  a  single  straight  piece,  that  shot 
arrows  the  length  of  a  man's  arm.  The  Indians  had  bows  only  forty  inches  on  the 
average,  since  a  short  bow  was  easier  to  handle  in  thick  forests.  They  used  various 
kinds  of  wood,  horn  or  even  bone,  such  as  the  ribs  of  large  animals.  These  they 
generally  backed  with  sinew. 

Sometimes  they  cut  spiral  strips  from  the  curving  horns  of  a  mountain  sheep, 
and  steamed  them  straight.  Then  they  glued  these  strips  together  into  a  wonderfully 


80 


THE  STORY  IN  A  RIFLE 


THE  "LONG  Bow"  IN  SHERWOOD  FOREST 
One  of  Robin  Hood's  famous  band  encounters  a  savage  tusker  at  close  range. 


THE  STORY  IN  A  RIFLE 81 

tough  and  springy  bow.  Once  in  a  while  they  even  took  the  whole  horns  of  some 
young  sheep,  that  had  not  curved  too  much,  and  used  the  pair  just  as  they  grew. 
In  this  case  each  horn  made  one-half  of  the  bow,  and  the  piece  of  skull  between  was 
shaped  down  into  a  handle.  This  gave  the  shape  of  a  "  Cupid's  Bow,"  but  it  could 
shoot  to  kill. 

As  to  Arrows. 

The  arrows  were  quite  as  important,  and  their  making  became  a  great  industry 
with  every  race.  This  was  because  so  many  must  be  carried  for  each  hunt  or  battle. 

Who  is  not  familiar  with  the  chipped  flint  arrow-heads  that  the  farmer  so  often 
turns  up  with  his  plow  as  a  relic  of  the  period  when  Americans  were  red-skinned 
instead  of  white?  These  arrow-heads  have  generally  a  shoulder  where  the  arrow 
was  set  into  the  shaft,  there  to  be  bound  tightly  with  sinew  or  fiber.  Many  of  them 
are  also  barbed  to  hold  the  flesh. 

A  Shooting  Machine. 

But  the  age  of  machinery  was  coming  on.  Once  in  a  while  there  were  glimpses 
of  more  powerful  and  complicated  devices  to  be  seen  among  these  simple  arms. 

A  new  weapon  now  came  about  through  warfare.  Man  has  been  a  savage 
fighting  animal  through  pretty  much  all  his  history,  but  while  he  tried  to  kill  the' 
other  fellow,  he  objected  to  being  killed  himself. 

Therefore  he  took  to  wearing  armor.  During  the  Middle  Ages  he  piled  on  more 
and  more,  until  at  last  one  of  the  knights  could  hardly  walk,  and  it  took  a  strong 
horse  to  carry  him.  When  such  a  one  fell,  he  went  over  with  a  crash  like  a  tin- 
peddler's  wagon,  and  had  to  be  picked  up  again  by  some  of  his  men.  Such  armor 
would  turn  most  of  the  arrows.  Hence  invention  got  at  work  again  and  produced 
the  cross-bow  and  its  bolt.  We  have  already  learned  how  the  tough  skin  of  animals 
brought  about  the  bow;  now  we  see  that  man's  artificial  iron  skin  caused  the  invention 
of  the  cross-bow. 

What  It  Was. 

What  was  the  cross-bow?  It  was  the  first  real  hand-shooting  machine.  It 
was  another  big  step  toward  the  day  of  the  rifle.  The  idea  was  simple  enough. 
Wooden  bows  had  already  been  made  as  strong  as  the  strongest  man  could  pull, 
and  they  wished  for  still  stronger  ones — steel  ones.  How  could  they  pull  them? 
At  first  they  mounted  them  upon  a  wooden  frame  and  rested  one  end  on  the  shoulder 
for  a  brace.  Then  they  took  to  pressing  the  other  end  against  the  ground,  and  using 
both  hands.  Next,  it  was  a  bright  idea  to  put  a  stirrup  on  this  end,  in  order  to  hold 
it  with  the  foot. 

Still  they  were  not  satisfied.  " Stronger,  stronger!"  they  clamored;  "give  us 
bows  which  will  kill  the  enemy  farther  away  than  he  can  shoot  at  us!  If  we  cannot 
set  such  bows  with  both  arms  let  us  try  our  backs !"  So  they  fastened  "  belt-claws  "  to 
their  stout  girdles  and  tugged  the  bow  strings  into  place  with  their  back  and  leg  muscles. 

"Stronger,  stronger  again,  for  now  the  enemy  has  learned  to  use  belt-claws 
and  he  can  shoot  as  far  as  we.  Let  us  try  mechanics!" 

So  they  attached  levers,  pulleys,  ratchets  and  windlasses,  until  at  last  they 
reached  the  size  of  the  great  siege  cross-bows,  weighing  eighteen  pounds.  These 
sometimes  needed  a  force  of  twelve  hundred  pounds  to  draw  back  the  string  to  its 
catch,  but  how  they  could  shoot! 

And  Now  for  Chemistry. 

Human  muscle  seemed  to  have  reached  its  limit,  mechanics  seemed  to  have 
reached  its  limit,  but  still  the  world  clamored,  "Stronger,  stronger!  How  shall  we 


THE  STORY    IN  A  RIFLE 


DEER-STALKING  WITH  THE  CROSS-BOW 
This  compact  arm  with  its  small  bolt  and  great  power  was  popular  with  many  sportsmen. 


THE  STORY  IN  A  RIFLE 83 

kill  our  enemy  farther  away  than  he  can  kill  us?"  For  answer,  man  unlocked  one 
of  the  secrets  of  Nature  and  took  out  a  terrible  force.  It  was  a  force  of  chemistry. 
Who  first  discovered  the  power  of  gunpowder?  Probably  the  Chinese,  although 
all  authorities  do  not  agree.  Strange,  is  it  not,  that  a  race  still  using  cross-bows 
in  its  army  should  have  known  of  explosives  long  before  the  Christian  Era,  and 
perhaps  as  far  back  as  the  time  of  Moses?  Here  is  a  passage  from  then*  ancient 
Gentoo  Code  of  Laws:  "The  magistrate  shall  not  make  war  with  any  deceitful 
machine,  or  with  poisoned  weapons,  or  with  cannons  or  guns,  or  any  kind  of  fire- 
arms." But  China  might  as  well  have  been  Mars  before  the  age  of  travel.  Our 
civilization  had  to  work  out  the  problem  for  itself. 

Playing  with  Fire. 

It  all  began  through  playing  with  fire.  It  was  desired  to  throw  fire  on  an 
enemy's  buildings  or  his  ships,  and  so  destroy  them.  Burning  torches  were  thrown 
by  machines,  made  of  cords  and  springs,  over  a  city  wall,  and  it  became  a  great  study 
to  find  the  best  burning  compound  with  which  to  cover  these  torches.  One  was 
needed  which  would  blaze  with  a  great  flame  and  was  hard  to  put  out. 

Hence  the  early  chemists  made  all  possible  mixtures  of  pitch,  resin,  naphtha, 
sulphur,  saltpeter,  etc.;  " Greek  fire"  was  one  of  the  most  famous. 

What  Two  Monks  Discovered. 

Many  of  these  were  made  in  the  monasteries.  The  monks  were  pretty  much 
the  only  people  in  those  days  with  time  for  study,  and  two  of  these  shaven-headed 
scientists  now  had  a  chance  to  enter  history.  Roger  Bacon  was  the  first.  One 
night  he  was  working  his  diabolical  mixture  in  the  stone-walled  laboratory,  and 
watched,  by  the  flickering  lights,  the  progress  of  a  certain  interesting  combination 
for  which  he  had  used  pure  instead  of  impure  saltpeter. 

Suddenly  there  was  an  explosion,  shattering  the  chemical  apparatus  and  probably 
alarming  the  whole  building.  "Good  gracious!"  we  can  imagine  some  of  the  startled 
brothers  saying,  "whatever  is  he  up  to  now!  Does  he  want  to  kill  us  all?"  That 
explosion  proved  the  new  combination  was  not  fitted  for  use  as  a  thrown  fire;  it 
also  showed  the  existence  of  terrible  forces  far  beyond  the  power  of  all  bow-springs, 
even  those  made  of  steel. 

Roger  Bacon  thus  discovered  what  was  practically  gunpowder,  as  far  back  as 
the  thirteenth  century,  and  left  writings  in  which  he  recorded  mixing  11.2  parts  of 
the  saltpeter,  29.4  of  charcoal,  and  29  of  sulphur.  This  was  the  formula  developed 
as  the  result  of  his  investigations. 

Berthold  Schwartz,  a  monk  of  Freiburg,  studied  Bacon's  works  and  carried  on 
dangerous  experiments  of  his  own,  so  that  he  is  ranked  with  Bacon  for  the  honor. 
He  was  also  the  first  one  to  rouse  the  interest  of  Europe  in  the  great  discovery. 

And  then  began  the  first  crude,  clumsy  efforts  at  gunmaking.  Firearms  were 
born. 

The  Coming  of  the  Matchlock. 

Hand  bombards  and  culverins  were  among  the  early  types.  Some  of  these 
were  so  heavy  that  a  forked  support  had  to  be  driven  into  the  ground,  and  two  men 
were  needed,  one  to  hold  and  aim,  the  other  to  prime  and  fire.  How  does  that  strike 
you  for  a  duck-shooting  proposition?  Of  course  such  a  clumsy  arrangement  could 
only  be  used  in  war. 

Improvements  kept  coming,  however.  Guns  were  lightened  and  bettered  in 
shape.  Somebody  thought  of  putting  a  flash  pan  for  the  powder,  by  the  side  of  the 
touch-hole,  and  now  it  was  decided  to  fasten  the  slow-match,  in  a  movable  cock, 
upon  the  barrel  and  ignite  it  with  a  trigger.  These  matches  were  fuses  of  some 


THE  STORY  IN  A  RIFLE 


AN  UNEXPECTED  MEETING 
The  "Kentucky  Rifle"  with  its  flint-lock  was  accurate,  but  had  to  be  muzzle-charged. 


THE  STORY  IN  A  RIFLE 85 

slow-burning  fiber,  like  tow,  which  would  keep  a  spark  for  a  considerable  time. 
Formerly  they  had  to  be  carried  separately,  but  the  new  arrangement  was  a  great 
convenience  and  made  the  matchlock.  The  cock,  being  curved  like  a  snake,  was 
called  the  "serpentine." 

The  Gun  of  Our  Ancestors. 

Everybody  knows  what  the  flint-lock  was  like.  You  simply  fastened  a  flake 
of  flint  in  the  cock  and  snapped  it  against  a  steel  plate.  This  struck  off  sparks  which 
fell  into  the  flash-pan  and  fired  the  charge. 

It  was  so  practical  that  it  became  the  form  of  gun  for  all  uses;  thus  gunmaking 
began  to  be  a  big  industry.  Invented  early  in  the  seventeenth  century,  it  was  used 
by  the  hunters  and  soldiers  of  the  next  two  hundred  years.  Old  people  remember 
when  flint-locks  were  plentiful  everywhere.  In  fact,  they  are  still  being  manufactured 
and  are  sold  in  some  parts  of  Africa  and  the  Orient.  One  factory  in  Birmingham, 
England,  is  said  to  produce  about  twelve  hundred  weekly,  and  Belgium  shares  in 
their  manufacture.  Some  of  the  Arabs  use  them  to  this  day  in  the  form  of  strange- 
looking  guns  with  long,  slender  muzzles  and  very  light,  curved  stocks. 

Caps  and  Breech-Loaders. 

Primers  were  tried  in  different  forms  called  "  detonators,"  but  the  familiar  little 


THE  FIRST  REMINGTON  RIFLE 


copper  cap  was  the  most  popular.     No  need  to  describe  them.     Millions  are  still 
made  to  be  used  on  old-fashioned  nipple  guns,  even  in  this  day  of  fixed  ammunition. 
Then  came  another  great  development,  the  breech-loader. 

From  Henry  VIII  to  Cartridges. 

Breech-loaders  were  hardly  new.  King  Henry  VIII  of  England,  he  of  the  many 
wives,  had  a  match-lock  arquebus  of  this  type  dated  1537.  Henry  IV  of  France 
even  invented  one  for  his  army,  and  others  worked  a  little  on  the  idea  from  time  to 
time.  But  it  was  not  until  fixed  ammunition  came  into  use  that  the  breech-loader 
really  came  to  stay — and  that  was  only  the  other  day.  You  remember  that  the 
Civil  War  began  with  muzzle-loaders  and  ended  with  breech-loaders. 

Houiller,  the  French  gunsmith,  hit  on  the  great  idea  of  the  cartridge.  If  you 
were  going  to  use  powder,  ball  and  percussion  primer,  to  get  your  game,  why  not 
put  them  all  into  a  neat,  handy,  gas-tight  case?  Simple  enough,  when  you  come 
to  think  of  it,  like  most  great  ideas.  But  it  required  good  brain-stuff  to  do  that 
thinking. 

A  Refusal  and  What  Came  of  It. 

Two  men,  a  smith  and  his  son,  both  named  Eliphalet  Remington,  in  1816,  were 
working  busily  one  day  at  their  forge  in  beautiful  Ilion  Gorge,  when,  so  tradition 
says,  the  son  asked  his  father  for  money  to  buy  a  rifle,  and  met  with  a  refusal. 

The  boy  set  his  wits  to  work.  Looking  around  the  forge,  he  picked  up  enough 
scrap  iron  to  make  a  gun  barrel,  and  with  this  set  to  work  to  make  a  rifle  for  him- 
self. At  that  time  gun  barrels  were  made,  not  by  drilling  the  bore  out  of  a  solid  rod 
of  metal,  but  by  shaping  a  thick,  oblong  sheet  of  metal  around  a  rod  the  size  of  the 


THE  STORY  IN  A  RIFLE 


bore,  and  lapwelding  the  edges.     When  the  rod  was  withdrawn,  there  was  your 
barrel. 

It  took  him  several  weeks  to  work  out  this  job  and  get  it  right,  but  he  succeeded. 
He  had  no  tools  to  cut  the  rifling.  There  was  a  gunsmith  in  Utica,  and  he  walked 
there,  fifteen  miles  over  the  hills,  to  have  his  barrel  finished.  The  gunsmith  was  so 
impressed  by  the  boy  and  his  accomplishment  that,  after  rifling  the  barrel,  he  fitted 

it  with  a  lock.     Then  when  Remington  fitted  on  a  wooden 
stock  his  weapon  was  ready. 

This  was  the  first  Remington  rifle,  and  it  proved  a 
surprisingly  good  one. 

Neighbors  tried  it,  and  wanted  guns  like  it.  Rem- 
ington made  them.  The  first  rifle — or  one  exactly  like 
the  first  one,  at  least — that  Remington  made  is  still  in 
Ilion,  the  property  of  Walter  Green.  Before  long  the 
demand  was  so  brisk  that  Remington  would  take  as  many 
barrels  as  he  could  carry  over  to  the  Utica  gunsmith  to 
be  rifled,  bringing  back  a  load  that  had  been  left 
there  on  a  previous  trip,  a  journey  of  thirty  miles  on 
foot. 

When  a  new  business  grows  at  that  rate,  of  course, 
it  soon  needs  power.  So,  later,  in  1816,  the  two  Reming- 
tons went  uup  the  creek/'  building  a  shop  three  miles 
from  home,  at  Ilion  Gulph,  which  was  part  of  the  father's 
farm.  That  was  the  actual  beginning  of  the  plant  and 
the  industry  of  which  the  centennial  was  celebrated  in 
1916.  During  its  early  years  this  shop  made  anything 
in  its  line  that  could  be  sold  in  the  neighborhood — rifles, 
shotguns,  crowbars,  pickaxes,  farm  tools.  The  power 
was  taken  from  a  water  wheel  in  Steele's  Creek,  and  the 
first  grindstones  for  smoothing  down  the  welded  edges 
in  gun  barrels  were  cut  from  a  red  sandstone  ledge  up 
the  gorge. 

Guns  sold  better  than  all  other  products.  Orders 
came  from  greater  distances.  By  and  by  shipments  were 
made  on  the  new  Erie  Canal.  For  a  while,  as  packages 
were  small,  they  were  taken  to  the  canal  bridge,  a  board 
lifted  from  the  floor,  and  the  package  dropped  onto  a 
boat  as  it  passed  under.  There  was  no  bill  of  lading. 
Remington  took  down  the  name  of  the  boat  and  notified 
his  customer  by  mail,  so  the  latter  would  know  which  craft  was  bringing  his 
guns. 

When  the  trade  had  extended  into  all  the  surrounding  counties,  however,  the 
new  business  needed  another  prune  essential  of  industry — transportation  facilities. 
Shipments  were  growing  larger,  and  materials  like  grindstones,  bought  outside,  had 
to  be  brought  from  the  canal  to  Ilion  Gulph.  In  1828,  therefore,  the  elder  Remington 
bought  a  large  farm  in  Ilion  proper,  and  there,  on  the  canal,  the  present  plant  was 
started.  This  was  also  the  beginning  of  Ilion,  for  at  that  period  the  place  was  nothing 
more  than  a  country  corner.  In  1828  the  elder  Remington  met  his  death  through 
accident,  and  the  business  was  carried  on  by  his  son,  who  brought  water  for  several 
power  wheels  from  Steele's  Creek,  built  a  house  to  live  in,  and  installed  in  his  wooden 
shop  quite  a  collection  of  machinery  for  gunmaking — the  list  names  a  big 
tilt  hammer,  several  trip  hammers,  boring  and  rifling  machines,  grindstones,  and 
so  on. 


YOUNG  REMINGTON  AT 
WORK  ON  RIFLE 


THE  STORY  IN  A   RIFLE 


87 


The  Beginning  of  Precision  in  Mechanics. 

Not  so  many  years  before  that,  in  England,  James  Watt  was  complaining  about 
the  difficulty  of  boring  a  six-inch  cylinder  for  his  steam  engine  with  sufficient  accuracy 
to  make  it  a  commercial  success.  No  matter  how  he  packed  the  piston  with  cork, 
oiled  rags  and  old  hats,  the  irregularities  in  the  cylinder  let  the  steam  escape,  and 
it  was  believed  that  neither  the  tools  nor  the 
workmen  existed  for  making  a  steam  engine 
with  sufficient  precision.  When  a  young 
manufacturer  named  Wilkinson  invented  a 
guide  for  the  boring  tool,  and  machined  cyl- 
inders of  fifty  inches  diameter  so  accurately 
that,  as  Watt  testified,  they  did  not  err  the 
thickness  of  an  old  shilling  in  any  part,  it 
seemed  as  though  the  last  refinement  in  ma-  OLD  BORING  TOOL 

chinery  had  been  achieved.     That  was  not 

very  accurate  by  present-day  standards  of  the  thousandth  part  of  an  inch,  for  a 
shilling  is  about  one-sixteenth  of  an  inch  in  thickness. 

Remington  was  right  in  the  thick  of  development  with  a  gunmaking  plant, 
of  course,  for  as  his  business  grew  he  had  to  invent  and  adapt  machines  to  increase 
output.  The  lap-welded  barrel  was  standard  until  1850,  and  he  got  together  a  battery 
of  trip  hammers  for  forging  and  welding  his  barrels.  Finer  dimensions  became  a 
factor  in  his  business  when  the  output  grew  large  enough  to  warrant  carrying  a 

stock  of  spare  parts  for  his  customers,  and  so  he 
improved  those  parts  in  ways  that  gave  at  least  the 
beginnings  of  interchangeability. 

Materials  were  very  crude.  There  was  no 
buying  of  foundry  iron  by  analysis,  no  high  carbon 
steels,  no  fancy  tool  steels — nor  any  "  efficiency  ex- 
perts "  with  their  stop  watches  and  scientific  speed- 
and-feed  tables.  Iron  was  secured  by  sending 
teams  around  the  neighborhood  to  pick  up  scrap, 
and  when  the  scrap  iron  was  all  cleaned  up,  fresh 
metal  was  brought  from  ore  beds  in  Oneida  County. 
Coal  was  scarce,  and  charcoal  made  the  chief  fuel, 
burnt  in  the  hills  round  about  Ilion. 

And  the  world  was  fairly  swarming  with  in- 
ventors ! 

That  was  long  before  invention  became  a 
research  department  full  of  engineers.  The  in- 
dividual inventor,  with  a  queer-shaped  factory 
process,  carried  on  by  a  head  and  a  rough  model  in 
his  carpet-bag,  had  a  chance  to  influence  industry. 
Few  of  the  useful  contrivances  had  been  invented 
yet,  and  almost  any  one  of  these  chaps  might  be  a 
genius.  So,  from  the  very  first,  Remington  was  in- 
terested in  inventors.  He  was  an  inventor  himself!  His  pioneer  spirit  was  so  strong 
that  Ilion  became  a  place  of  pilgrimage  for  men  with  ideas.  Inventors  came  from 
everywhere,  and  Remington  listened  to  them  all.  Some  brought  models,  others 
drawings,  still  others  a  bare  idea,  and  a  few,  of  course,  had  just  a  plain  "bug." 

The  First  Government  Contract. 

The  first  government  contract  came  in  1845.  War  with  Mexico  loomed  up  on 
the  horizon.  William  Jencks  had  invented  a  carbine,  and  Uncle  Sam  wanted  several 


POLE  LATHE  OF  1800 


88 


THE  STORY  IN  A  RIFLE 


thousand  guns  made  in  a  hurry  under  the  patent.  A  contract  had  been  let  to  Ames 
&  Co.,  of  Springfield,  Mass.,  and  they  had  made  special  machinery  for  the  job. 
Remington  took  over  the  contract  and  the  machinery,  added  to  his  power,  secured 
by  putting  in  another  water  race,  erected  the  building  now  known  as  the  "Old 
Armory/'  and  made  the  carbines. 

In  1850  the  art  of  gunmaking  began  to  improve  radically.  The  old  lap-welded 
barrel  gave  way  to  the  barrel  drilled  from  solid  steel.  This  was  accomplished  for 
the  first  tune  in  America  at  the  Remington  plant,  in  making  Harper's  Ferry  muskets. 
Then  followed  the  drilling  of  small-bore  barrels  from  solid  steel,  the  drilling  of 
doubled-barrel  shotguns  from  one  piece  of  steel,  the  drilling  of  fluid  steel  and  nickel 
steel  barrels,  all  done  for  the  first  time  in  this  country  at  the  Ilion  shops.  Three- 


SHIPPING  REMINGTONS  IN  T.HE  EARLY  DAYS 

barrel  guns  were  also  made  from  one  piece  of  steel,  two  bores  for  shot  and  the  third 
rifled  for  a  bullet.  A  customer  wanted  some  special  barrels  with  nine  bores  in  a 
single  piece  of  steel.  These  were  made  at  Ilion,  and  the  Remington  plant  soon 
became  noted  for  its  ability  to  bore  almost  anything  in  the  shape  of  a  gun,  from  the 
tiniest  squirrel  calibers  up  to  boat  guns  weighing  sixty  pounds  or  more,  which  were 
really  small  caliber  cannon. 

Between  the  time  when  Remington  made  his  first  rifle  at  Ilion  Gulph  and  the 
outbreak  of  the  Civil  War,  most  of  the  basic  things  in  mackine  tools  had  been  adapted 
to  general  production — the  slide-rest  lathe,  planer,  shaper,  drill  press,  steam  hammer, 
taps  and  dies,  the  vernier  caliper  that  enabled  a  mechanic  at  the  bench  to  measure 
to  one-thousandth  of  an  inch,  and  so  on. 

When  Fort  Sumter  was  fired  upon,  Uncle  Sam  turned  to  the  Remington  plant, 
among  others,  for  help  out  of  his  dilemma  of  "unpreparedness."  The  first  contract 
was  given  for  5,000  Harper's  Ferry  rifles,  ancj  it  took  two  years  to  complete  it. 


THE  STORY  IN  A  RIFLE 


89 


MASTER  OP  THE  SITUATION 
The  modern  sportsman  with  his  automatic  rifle  is  prepared  for  all  emergencies. 


90 


THE  STORY  IN  A  RIFLE 


thousand  Harper's  Ferry  muskets  came  in  to  be  changed  so  that  bayonet  or  sabre 
could  be  attached,  and  this  particular  job  was  finished  in  two  weeks,  every  man  and 
boy  in  ilion  working  at  it.  There  was  a  big  contract  for  army  revolvers,  and  that 
had  to  be  taken  care  of  by  starting  a  separate  plant  in  Utica,  which  ran  until  the 
end  of  the  war,  when  its  machinery  and  tools  were  moved  to  Ilion.  Steam  power 
was  now  installed,  and  the  plant,  increased  by  new  buildings  and  machinery  ran 
day  and  night. 

In  1863,  the  Remington  breech-loading  rifle  was  perfected,  and  proved  to  be  so 
great  an  improvement  over  previous  inventions  in  military  arms  that  an  order  for 
10,000  of  them  was  obtained  from  our  government.  The  Ilion  plant  being  taxed 


Illustrations  by  courtesy  of  the  Winchester  Repeating  Arms  Co. 

to  its  utmost  capacity,  the  contract  was  transferred  to  the  Savage  Arms  Company, 
of  Middletown,  Conn.,  which  completed  the  job  in  1864. 

The  tools  and  fixtures  used  in  making  Remington  breech-loading  rifles  for  the 
United  States  were  brought  back  from  Connecticut  in  1866,  and  an  inventive  genius 
named  John  Rider  was  set  to  work,  with  a  staff  of  the  best  mechanics  obtainable, 
to  develop  this  gun  still  further.  He  devised  the  famous  system  of  a  dropping  breech 
block,  backed  up  by  the  hammer. 

Uncle  Sam  had  a  great  number  of  muzzle-loading  Springfield  rifles  left  from  the 
Civil  War.  By  the  Berdan  system,  these  were  turned  into  breech-loaders  at  the 
Ilion  plant,  the  breech  being  cut  out  of  the  barrel  and  a  breech-block  inserted, 
swinging  upward  and  forward.  Spain  had  10,000  muskets  to  modernize  by  the 
same  system,  and  the  breech-block  attachments  were  made  at  Ilion. 

The  Berdan  system,  with  a  slight  alteration,  was  the  foundation  of  the  Allen 
gun,  made  by  the  United  States  government  for  the  army  until  superseded  by  the 
Krag-Jorgensen. 

The  repeating  rifle  now  seemed  an  interesting  possibility  and  large  sums  were 
spent  in  developing  a  weapon  of  this  type.  It  did  not  prove  to  have  merit,  however. 

Then  James  P.  Lee  designed  the  first  military  rifle  with  the  bolt  type  of  cartridge 
chamber,  the  parent  of  the  military  rifle  of  today.  The  model  was  made  at  Ilion, 
but  another  type  of  bolt  gun,  the  Keene,  seemed  to  offer  still  greater  possibilities 
at  the  moment,  and  the  plant  was  being  prepared  to  manufacture  this.  The  Lee 
gnu  was  taken  up  at  Bridgeport,  but  not  made  successfully,  and  finally,  as  the  Keene 


THE  STORY  IN  A  RIFLE 


EXTREME  CARE  IN  TESTING  is  NECESSARY  TO  ACCURACY  OP  AIM  IN  THE  FINISHED  PRODUCT 

Illustrations  by  courtesy  of  the  Wincnester  Repeating  Arms  Co. 


92 


THE  STORY  IN  A  RIFLE 


gun  had  not  met  expectations,  falling  short  of  government  tests,  the  Lee  type  was 
brought  back  to  Ilion,  tools  worked  out  and  manufacture  undertaken  in  quantities. 
It  afterwards  became  the  basis  for  the  famous  British  army  rifle,  the  Lee-Metford. 

At  this  period  the  plant  made  many  other  interesting  guns.  The  Whitmore 
double-barrel  breech-loading  shotgun  was  designed,  and  later  developed  into  the 
Remington  breech-loading  shotgun.  Eliott  hammerless  breech-loading  pistols  with 
one,  two,  four  and  five  barrels,  discharged  by  a  revolving  firing  pin,  were  made  in 
large  quantities,  as  well  as  a  single-barrel  Eliott  magazine  pistol.  The  Eliott  magazine 
pump  rifle  was  perfected  in  Ilion,  but  afterwards  made  in  New  England.  Vernier 
and  wind  gauge  sights,  attachable  to  any  rifle,  were  made,  and  novelties  like  the 


"gun  cane,"  which  had  the  appearance  of  a  walking-stick,  but  was  a  perfect  firearm, 
carried  as  a  protection  against  robbery. 

Making  Barrels. 

One  of  the  most  important  features  is,  of  course,  the  making  of  barrels.  The 
machines  for  drilling  and  boring  are  the  best  that  money  can  buy,  and  the  operatives 
the  most  skilful  to  be  found  anywhere.  Care  at  this  stage  reduces  the  necessity 
for  straightening  later.  Every  point  is  given  the  minutest  attention.  In  drilling 
22-calibers,  for  example,  the  length  of  the  hole  must  be  from  100  to  125  times  the 
diameter  of  the  drill. 

Improvements  have  made  it  possible  to  drill  harder  steel  than  formerly.  This 
reduces  the  weight  of  the  gun,  and  is  important  to  the  man  who  carries  it. 

Taking  off  2/1000  of  an  Inch. 

The  boring  is  an  especially  delicate  task.  In  choke-boring  your  shotgun,  for 
example,  the  final  reamer  took  off  only  2/1000  of  an  inch.  Think  of  such  a  gossamer 
thread  of  metal!  But  it  insures  accuracy.  No  pains  can  be  too  great  for  that. 

This  exquisite  painstaking  will  be  seen  still  more  in  the  barrel-inspection  depart- 
ment, to  which  we  will  go  now.  In  passing,  we  must  not  forget  the  grinding  shop, 
where  is,  perhaps,  the  finest  battery  of  grinding  machines  in  the  United  States;  or 


THE  STORY  IN  A  RIFLE 


93 


94 


THE  STORY  IN  A  RIFLE 


the  polishers  running  at  the  dizzy  speed  of  1,500  to  1,700  revolutions  per  minute 
and  making  the  inside  of  the  barrel  shine  like  glass.  This  high  polish  is  im- 
portant, for  it  resists  rust  ard  prevents  leading. 

That  is  the  atmosphere  of  the  whole 
place.  Every  action  has  its  reason.  There 
is  not  an  unnecessary  motion  made  by  any 
one,  and  there  is  not  one  necessary  thing 
omitted,  whatever  the  cost  or  trouble. 

The  Making  of  Ammunition  Today. 

It  is  no  easy  matter  to  secure  a  pass 
to  the  Bridgeport  plant.  Its  great  ad- 
vantage over  other  concerns  lies,  to  a 
large  degree,  in  the  exclusive  machinery 
that  has  been  developed  at  so  much  pains 
and  expense  and  the  secrets  of  which  are 
so  carefully  guarded.  In  our  case,  how- 
ever, there  will  be  nothing  to  hinder  us 
from  getting  a  few  general  impressions,  provided  we  do  not  go  into  mechanical  de- 
tails too  closely. 

The  very  size  of  the  great  manufactory  is  impressive — sixteen  acres  of  floor 
space,  crowded  with  machinery  and  resounding  with  activity.  In  building  after 
building,  floor  above  floor,  the  sight  is  similar:  the  long  rows  of  busy  machines,  the 
whirling  network  of  shafts  and  belts  above,  the  intent  operatives,  and  the  steady 
clicking  of  innumerable  parts  blended  into  a  softened  widespread  sound.  It  seems 


Courtesy  of  the  Winchester  Repeating  Arms  Co. 


absolutely  endless;  it  is  a  matter  of  hours  to  go  through  the  plant.  Stop  at  one 
of  the  machines  and  see  the  speed  and  accuracy  with  which  it  turns  out  its  product; 
then  calculate  the  entire  number  of  machines  and  you  will  begin  to  gain  a  little  idea 
as  to  what  the  total  output  of  this  vast  institution  must  be. 

More  than  once  you  will  find  yourself  wondering  whether  there  can  be  guns 
enough  in  the  world,  or  fingers  enough  to  press  their  triggers,  to  use  such  a  tremendous 
production  of  ammunition.  But  there  are,  and  the  demand  is  steadily  increasing. 
This  old  world  is  a  pretty  big  place  after  all. 


THE  STORY  IN  A  RIFLE 


95 


96 THE  STORY  IN  A  RIFLE 

Handling  Deadly  Explosives. 

Operatives,  girls  in  many  cases,  handle  the  most  terrible  compounds.  We 
stop,  for  example,  where  they  are  making  primers  to  go  in  the  head  of  your  loaded 
shell,  in  order  that  it  may  not  miss  fire  when  the  bunch  of  quail  whirrs  suddenly 
into  the  air  from  the  sheltering  grasses.  That  grayish,  pasty  mass  is  wet  fulminate 
of  mercury.  Suppose  it  should  dry  a  trifle  too  rapidly.  It  would  be  the  last  thing 
you  ever  did  suppose,  for  there  is  force  enough  in  that  double  handful  to  blow  its 
surroundings  into  fragments.  You  edge  away  a  little,  and  no  wonder,  but  the  girl 
who  handles  it  shows  no  fear  as  she  deftly  but  carefully  presses  it  into  molds  which 
separate  it  into  the  proper  sizes  for  primers.  She  knows  that  in  its  present  moist 
condition  it  cannot  explode. 

Extreme  Precautions. 

Or,  perhaps,  we  may  be  watching  one  of  the  many  loading  machines.  There 
is  a  certain  suggestiveness  in  the  way  the  machines  are  separated  by  partitions.  The 
man  in  charge  takes  a  small  carrier  of  powder  from  a  case  in  the  outside  wall  and 
shuts  the  door,  then  carefully  empties  it  into  the  reservoir  of  his  machine,  and 
watches  alertly  while  it  packs  the  proper  portions  into  the  waiting  shells.  He  looks 
like  a  careful  man,  and  needs  to  be.  You  do  not  stand  too  close. 

The  empty  carrier  then  passes  through  a  little  door  at  the  side  of  the  building, 
and  drops  into  the  yawning  mouth  of  an  automatic  tube.  In  the  twinkling  of  an 
eye  it  appears  in  front  of  the  operator  in  one  of  the  distributing  stations,  where  it  is 
refilled  and  returned  to  its  proper  loading  machine,  in  order  to  keep  the  machine 
going  at  a  perfectly  uniform  rate;  while  at  the  same  time  it  allows  but  a  minimum 
amount  of  powder  to  remain  in  the  building  at  any  moment.  Each  machine  has 
but  just  sufficient  powder  in  its  hopper  to  run  until  a  new  supply  can  reach  it. 
Greater  precaution  than  this  cannot  be  imagined,  illustrating  as  it  does,  that  no 
effort  has  been  spared  to  protect  the  lives  of  the  operators. 


How  does  an  Artesian  Well  Keep  Up  Its  Supply  of  Water? 

Artesian  wells  are  named  after  the  French  Province  of  Artais,  where  they  appear 
to  have  been  first  used  on  an  extensive  scale. 

They  are  perpendicular  borings  into  the  ground  through  which  water  rises  to 
the  surface  of  the  soil,  producing  a  constant  flow  or  stream.  As  a  location  is  chosen 

where  the  source  of  supply  is  higher 
than  the  mouth  of  the  boring,  the 
water  rises  to  Uie  opening  at  the 
top.  They  are  generally  sunk  in 
valley  plains  and  districts  where 
ARTESIAN  WELL  (D^  IN  THE  LONDON  BASIN  the  formation  of  the  ground  is  such 

that  that  below  the  surface  is  bent 

into  basin-shaped  curves.  The  rain  falling  on  the  outcrops  of  these  saturates  the 
whole  porous  bed,  so  that  when  the  bore  reaches  it  the  water  by  hydraulic  pres- 
sure rushes  up  towards  the  level  of  the  highest  portion  of  the  strata. 

The  supply  is  sometimes  so  abundant  as  to  be  used  extensively  as  a  moving 
power,  and  in  arid  regions  for  fertilizing  the  ground,  to  which  purpose  artesian  springs 
have  been  applied  from  a  very  remote  period.  Thus  many  artesian  wells  have  been 
sunk  in  the  Algerian  Sahara  which  have  proved  an  immense  boon  to  the  district. 
The  same  has  been  done  in  the  arid  region  of  the  United  States.  The  water  of  most 
of  these  i&  potable,  but  a  few  are  a  little  saline,  though  not  to  such  an  extent  as  to 
influence  vegetation- 


WATER  SUPPLY  FOR  ARTESIAN  WELL 97 

The  hollows  in  which  London  and  Paris  lie  are  both  perforated  in  many  places 
by  borings  of  this  nature.  At  London  they  were  first  sunk  only  to  the  sand,  but 
more  recently  into  the  chalk.  One  of  the  most  celebrated  artesian  wells  is  that  of 
Crenelle  near  Paris,  1,798  feet  deep,  completed  in  1841,  after  eight  years'  work. 
One  at  Rochefort,  France,  is  2,765  feet  deep;  at  Columbus,  Ohio,  2,775;  at  Pesth, 
Hungary,  3,182,  and  at  St.  Louis,  Mo.,  3,843J.  Artesian  borings  have  been  made 
in  West  Queensland  4,000  feet  deep.  At  Schladebach,  in  Prussia,  there  is  one  nearly 
a  mile  deep. 

As  the  temperature  of  water  from  great  depths  is  invariably  higher  than  that 
at  the  surface,  artesian  wells  have  been  made  to  supply  warm  water  for  heating 
manufactories,  greenhouses,  hospitals,  fishponds,  etc.  The  petroleum  wells  of 
America  are  of  the  same  technical  description.  These  wells  are  now  made  with 
larger  diameters  than  formerly,  and  altogether  their  construction  has  been  rendered 
much  more  easy  in  modern  times. 

Boring  in  the  earth  or  rock  for  mining,  geologic  or  engineering  purposes  is 
effected  by  means  of  augers,  drills  or  jumpers,  sometimes  wrought  by  hand,  but 
now  usually  by  machinery,  driven  by  steam  or  frequently  by  compressed  air. 

In  ordinary  mining  practice  a  bore-hole  is  usually  commenced  by  digging  a  small 
pit  about  six  feet  deep,  over  which  is  set  up  a  shear-legs  with  pulley,  etc.  The  boring 
rods  are  from  ten  to  twenty  feet  in  length,  capable  of  being  jointed  together  by  box 
and  screw,  and  having  a  chisel  inserted  at  the  lower  end.  A  lever  is  employed  to 
raise  the  bore-rods,  to  which  a  slight  twisting  motion  is  given  at  each  stroke,  when 
the  rock  at  the  bottom  of  the  hole  is  broken  by  the  repeated  percussion  of  the  cutting 
tool.  Various  methods  are  employed  to  clear  out  the  triturated  rock. 

The  work  is  much  quickened  by  the  substitution  of  steam  power,  water  power, 
or  even  horse  power  for  manual  labor.  Of  the  many  forms  of  boring  machines  now 
in  use  may  be  mentioned  the  diamond  boring  machine,  invented  by  Leschot,  a 
Swiss  engineer.  In  this  the  cutting  tool  is  of  a  tubular  form,  and  receives  a  uniform 
rotatory  motion,  the  result  being  the  production  cf  a  cylindrical  core  from  the  rock 
of  the  same  size  as  the  bore  or  caliber  of  the  tube.  The  boring  bit  is  a  steel  thimble 
about  four  inches  in  length,  having  two  rows  of  Brazilian  black  diamonds  firmly 
embedded  therein,  the  edges  projecting  slightly.  The  diamond  teeth  are  the  only 
parts  which  come  in  contact  with  the  rock,  and  their  hardness  is  such  that  an  enormous 
length  can  be  bored  with  but  little  appreciable  wear. 

Where  do  Dates  Come  From? 

Besides  the  dried  dates  which  we  are  accustomed  to  seeing  in  this  country,  they 
are  used  extensively  by  the  natives  of  Northern  Africa  and  of  some  countries  of  Asia. 

It  consists  of  an  external  pericarp,  separable  into  three  portions,  and  covering  a 
seed  which  is  hard  and  horny  in  consequence  of  the  nature  of  the  albumen  in  which 
the  embryo  plant  is  buried. 

Next  to  the  cocoanut  tree,  the  date  is  unquestionably  the  most  interesting  and 
useful  of  the  palm  tribe.  Its  stem  shoots  up  to  the  height  of  fifty  or  sixty  feet  with- 
out branch  or  division,  and  of  nearly  the  same  thickness  throughout  its  length.  From 
the  summit  it  throws  out  a  magnificent  crown  of  large  feather-shaped  leaves  and  a 
number  of  spadices,  each  of  which  in  the  female  plant  bears  a  bunch  of  from  180  to 
200  dates,  each  bunch  weighing  from  twenty  to  twenty-five  pounds. 

The  fruit  is  eaten  fresh  or  dried.  Cakes  of  dates  pounded  and  kneaded  together 
are  the  food  of  the  Arabs  who  traverse  the  deserts.  A  liquor  resembling  wine  is  made 
from  dates  by  fermentation. 

Persia,  Palestine,  Arabia  and  the  north  of  Africa  are  best  adapted  for  the  culture 
of  the  date-tree,  and  its  fruit  is  in  these  countries  an  important  article  of  food.  It  is 
uow  being  introduced  into  California. 


Tne  Story  of  Rubber 

Rubber  is  the  coagulated  sap  of  more  than  300  varieties  of  tropical  trees  and 
vines — the  Landolphia  of  Africa,  the  Ficus  of  the  Malay  Peninsula,  the  Guayule 
shrub  of  Mexico  and  the  Castilloa  of  South  America,  Central  America  and  Southern 
Mexico  are  all  important  rubber  producers,  but  far  more  important  than  all  of  the 
others  together  is  the  Hevea,  a  native  of  Brazil. 

Hevea  trees  are  scattered  through  the  dense  forests  of  practically  every  part 
of  the  Amazon  Basin,  a  territory  more  than  two-thirds  as  large  as  the  United  States. 

How  was  Rubber  First  Used? 

Down  in  Brazil,  several  hundred  miles  up  the  Amazon  River,  there  stood  a  great 
forest  of  trees  and  in  this  forest — the  same  as  in  forests  of  today — were  birds  and 


p-ajfrK^MMiiaM  M  j 


j 

INDIANS  PLAYING  WITH  A  RUBBER  BALL  WHEN  COLUMBUS  CAME  IN  SIGHT 

Courtesy  of  the  United  Stales  Rubber  Co. 

animals  and  bugs  and  beetles,  etc.  All  trees  are  protected  by  nature;  some  are 
protected  from  bugs  eating  their  leaves,  by  other  bugs  eating  up  these  bugs;  other 
trees  are  protected  by  having  a  thorny  or  bristly  bark. 

In  these  forests  in  which  the  rubber  tree  grows  there  was  a  wood-boring  beetle, 
and  this  beetle  would  attack  these  rubber  trees,  boring  into  them;  but  the  tree, 
in  order  to  protect  itself,  had  a  poisonous  juice,  and  as  soon  as  the  beetle  bored  into 
the  tree,  this  juice  killed  him.  Then  the  juice  would  fill  up  the  hole  the  beetle  had 
made,  and  the  tree  would  go  on  growing  as  before. 

In  those  days  the  natives  around  these  forests  (who  were  half  Indi&n  and  half 
Negro)  happened  to  find  some  of  this  juice  sticking  on  the  tree.  They  cut  it  off, 
rolled  it  together  and  made  a  ball,  with  which  they  would  play  games.  The  first 

(98) 


THE  STORY  OF  RUBBER 


99 


IN  THE  JUNGLE 
LLAMA,  DOMESTIC  ANIMAL  OF  THE  ANDES,  USED  TO  CARRY  RUBBER 

OVER  MOUNTAINS 

RAILROAD  AROUND  THE  RAPIDS  OF  THE  MADEIRA  TERMINAL 
CRUDE  RUBBER  "BISCUITS"  ON  THE  BANKS  OF  THE  AMAZON 

Courtesy  of  the  United  States  Rubber  Co. 


100 


THE  STORY  OF  RUBBER 


ON  THE  BANKS  OP  THE  Rio  GUAPORE — BRAZIL 

Courtesy  of  the  B.  F.  Goodrich  Co 


MMMMM^M* 

mention  of  it  was  made  by  Herrera  in  his  account  of  the  second  voyage  of  Columbus, 

wherein  he  speaks  of  a  ball  used  by  Indians,  made  from  the  gum  of  a  tree  which  was 

lighter  and  bounced  better  than  the  far-famed  balls  of  Castile 

The  way  they  gather  this  rubber  is  very  interesting.     When  it  comes  from  the 

tree  it  is  nothing  but  a  milky  juice.     The  natives  of  South  America  soon  discovered 

_  that  the  white  man  was 

willing  to  pay  them  beads 
and  other  trinkets  for 
chunks  of  this  rubber,  so 
they  became  active  in 
gathering  it. 

What  is  a  Rubber  Camp 
Like? 

In  this  locality  the 
rubber  harvest  com- 
mences as  soon  as  the 
Amazon  falls  which  is 
usually  about  the  first 
of  August.  When  this 
date  approaches  bands 

...  of  natives  set  out  from 

their  primitive  homes  and  go,  in  many  instances,  hundreds  of  miles  into  the  forest 
lowlands.  There,  within  easy  reach  of  the  rubber  trees,  they  set  up  their  camp 
and  the  actual  work  of  harvesting  the  rubber  crop  begins.  It  usually  covers  a 
period  of  about  six  months,  extending  from  August  to  January  or  February. 

The  camps  are  usually  great  distances  from  the  nearest  town  and  procuring 
supplies  is  not  only  difficult  but  very  expensive  as  well.  The  natives  build  their 
huts  out  of  small  poles 
covered  with  palm  thatch 
and  live  in  little  colonies 
while  the  rubber  harvest 
is  going  on.  The  Bra- 
zilian name  for  a  rubber 
gatherer  is  "seringuero," 
A  roof  and  floor  with 
the  flimsiest  of  walls,  set 
up  on  piling  for  coolness, 
defense  against  animals 
and  insects,  and  to  keep 
the  building  dry  during 
flood  season,  forms  the 
home  of  the  rubber  gath- 
erer. The  more  preten- 
tious and  better  furnished 
home  of  the  superintendent  of  the  "estate,"  together  with  the  storehouses,  etc.,  are 
called  the  "seringal." 

The  buildings  are  usually  grouped  together  at  a  favorable  spot  on  the  banks 
of  the  Amazon  or  one  of  its  tributaries. 

Furniture  is  of  the  most  primitive  type.  The  laborers  and  their  families  sleep 
in  hammocks  or  on  matting  on  the  floor.  Food  is  largely  made  up  of  canned  goods 
and  the  ever-present  farina,  a  sort  of  tapioca  flour. 

The  climate  of  the  South  American  rubber  country  is  usually  fatal  to  white 


RUBBER  GATHERER'S  HUT  NEAR  THE  AMAZON 


THE  STORY  OF  RUBBER 


101 


men,  and  even  among  the  Indians  the  fevers,  the  poisonous  insects  and  reptiles,  and 
the  other  perils  of  a  tropical  forest  cause  a  high  death  rate.  The  production  of 
South  American  rubber  is  limited  by  a  shortage  of  men  rather  than  a  shortage  of  trees. 
In  December  the  rainy  season  begins.  The  waters  of  the  Amazon  begin  to  rise 
and  the  work  ceases.  The  superintendent  and  many  of  the  workers  go  down  the 
river  to  Para  and  Manaos  or  to  villages  on  higher  ground.  However,  a  number  of 
the  laborers  usually  remain  in  the  huts,  loafing  and  fighting  the  animals  and  insects 


A  HOME  OP  THE  RUBBER  GATHERERS 

Courtesy  of  the  United  States  Rubber  Co. 

that  seek  refuge  from  the  rising  waters.  They  have  but  little  to  eat,  and  during  the 
entire  season  practically  no  communication  with  the  outside  world. 

At  the  end  of  the  rainy  season,  early  in  May,  the  laborers  return  to  their  task. 
The  quick-growing  vegetation  has  filled  the  estradas  and  this  must  be  cleared  away 
and  perhaps  new  estradas  opened.  An  estrada  is  simply  a  path  leading  from  one 
Hevea  tree  to  another  and  circling  back  to  camp.  Each  estrada  includes  about 
one  hundred  of  the  scattered  Heveas. 

After  having  established  themselves  in  camp  the  natives  take  up  their  monotonous 
round,  which  is  followed  day  after  day  as  long  as  the  rubber  trees  continue  to  yield 
their  valuable  sap.  When  the  seringuero  starts  out  he  equips  himself  with  a  toma- 
hawk-like axe  having  a  handle  about  thirty  inches  long.  This  is  called  a 
"macheadino." 


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THE  STORY  OF  RUBBER 


TAPPING  HEVEA  RUBBER  TREE— BRAZIL 

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THE  STORY  OF  RUBBER 


103 


How  is  Rubber  Gathered  by  the  Natives? 

The  trees  are  tapped  very  much  like  maple  syrup  trees.  Only  the  juice  is  found 
between  the  outer  bark  and  the  wood.  So  these  men  make  a  cut  in  the  tree  through 
the  bark,  almost  to  the 
wood.  A  little  cup  is 
then  fastened  to  the  tree 
with  a  piece  of  soft  clay 
to  press  the  cup  against 
it,  and  the  juice  runs 
into  this  cup.  Sometimes 
they  have  from  ten  to 
thirty  cups  on  one  tree 
and  the  average  yield  of 
a  tree  is  ten  pounds  of 
rubber  a  year. 

Some  two  hours  after 
the  tapping  is  done  the 
flow  entirely  ceases  and 
the  tree  must  be  tapped 
anew  to  secure  a  fresh  flow. 

The  film  of  rubber  that  forms  on  the  inside  of  the  cup  and  the  bits  of  rubber 
remaining  on  the  tree  are  collected  and  sold  as  coarse  Para. 

The  rubber  gatherer  carries  in  addition  to  a  macheadino  and  many  small  tin 


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GATHERING  THE  RUBBER  MILK — BRAZIL 

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How  THE  RUBBER  MILK  DRIPS  FROM 

THE   GASH  IN  THE   TREE — BRAZIL 


cups,  a  larger  vessel  for  gathering  the  liquid  and  carrying  it  to  camp.  One  man  will 
tap  as  many  as  100  trees  in  a  single  morning  and  then  cover  the  same  ground  again 
in  the  afternoon  or  on  the  following  morning,  gathering  .the  sap  that  drips  slowly 


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THE  STORY  OF  RUBBER 


from  the  cuts  made  in  the  trees.     On  these  journeys  the  harvester  frequently  travels 
long  distances  over  paths  so  buried  by  the  undergrowth  of  the  jungle  that  they  are 

almost  invisible  to  the 
untrained  eye.  On  such 
expeditions  rubber  gath- 
erers usually  go  armed 
with  rifles  to  protect 
themselves  against  wild 
animals,  reptiles  and  sav- 
age Indians. 

How  is  Rubber  Smoked? 

After  the  juice  has 
been  gathered  in  this 
way,  the  native  builds  a 
fire;  over  it  he  places  a 
cover  shaped  like  a  large 
bottle  with  the  bottom 

G      .    ,    .,,     -    M  knocked  out  of  it.     This 

nre  is  built  of  oily  nuts  found  in  the  forest,  and  the  thick  smoke  arises  through  what 

would  be  the  neck  of  the  bottle. 

With  a  stick  shaped  something  like  the  wooden  shovels  used  at  the  seashore 

he  dipped  into  the  milky  juice  in  the  bowl,  then  turned  this  stick  or  paddle  around 


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SMOKING  RUBBER  ON  THE  LOWER  AMAZON 

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very  rapidly  in  the  smoke  until  the  juice  baked  on  the  paddle.  He  then  added  more 
juice  and  went  through  the  same  operation  again  and  again  until  there  were  between 
five  aud  six  pounds  of  rubber  baked  on  this  paddle.  He  then  cuts  this  off  with  9 


THE   STORY  OF  RUBBER 


SMOKING  RUBBER — UPPER  AMAZON 

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wet  knife  which  made  it  cut  more  rapidly. 
That  formed  what  is  called  a  rubber  "bis- 
cuit," and  he  then  started  over  again  for 
his  next  five  or  six  pounds.  Later,  as  the 
demand  for  these  "  biscuits  "  increased,  instead 
of  the  native  using  the  paddle,  he  erected  two 
short  fence-like  affairs  about  six  feet  apart, 
but  parallel  with  each  other,  and  in  between 
was  the  smoky  fire.  Then  he  obtained  a 
long  pole,  stretched  it  across  these  two  rails 
and  poured  a  small  quantity  of  this  juice  on 
this  pole,  over  where  the  smoke  came  in  con- 
tact with  it,  and  rolled  the  pole  around  until 
this  juice  was  baked,  adding  more,  until, 
instead  of  a  small  five-  or  six-pound  "bis- 
cuit," he  would  get  an  immense  ball.  In 
order  to  get  this  off  his  pole,  he  would  jog 
one  end  of  the  pole  on  the  ground  until  the 
" biscuit"  would  slide  off.  This  is  the  way 
crude  rubber  first  came  into  our  market  and 
the  way  it  comes  today. 

How  was  Vulcanizing  Discovered? 

Up  to  this  time,  these  "biscuits,"  when 
exposed  to  heat,  would  become  very  soft 
and  sticky,  and  when  exposed  to  the  cold, 
would  become  hard  like  a  stone. 


REMOVING  BISCUIT  FROM  POLE  AFTER 


There  was  a»  American  by  the  name     courtesy  of  the 


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THE  STORY  OF  RUBBER 


of  Charles  Goodyear  who  had  heard  how  the  natives  of  the  rubber-growing  countries 
used  this  milky  juice  in  many  ways  for  their  own  benefit.  One  use  they  put  it  to 
was  the  waterproofing  of  their  cloaks.  How  could  this  be  done  so  that  our  clothing 
would  be  made  water-tight  and  yet  not  be  sticky  in  summer  or  stiff  in  winter? 
Goodyear  devoted  a  great  deal  of  his  time  to  solving  this  problem,  and,  like  many 
other  great  inventors,  he  passed  through  many  trials.  His  many  failures  caused  his 
friends  to  forsake  him  and  he  was  put  in  prison  for  not  paying  his  debts.  He  per- 
sisted in  his  quest,  however,  and  it  was  accident  at  last  that  opened  the  way  to 
discovery  of  the  processes  of  vulcanization  for  which  Goodyear  was  seeking. 

At  Woburn,  Mass.,  one  day,  in  the  spring  of  1839,  he  was  standing  with  his 
brother  and  several  other  persons  near  a  very  hot  stove.  He  held  in  his  hand  a 
mass  of  his  compound  of  sulphur  and  gum,  upon  which  he  was  expatiating  in  his 


INDIAN  WATERPROOFING  CLOTH  BY  "PAINTING 

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IT  WITH  RUBBER  "MILK 


usual  vehement  manner,  the  company  exhibiting  the  indifference  to  which  he  was 
accustomed.  In  the  crisis  of  his  argument  he  made  a  violent  gesture,  bringing  the 
mass  in  contact  with  the  stove,  which  was  hot  enough  to  melt  India-rubber  instantly; 
upon  looking  at  it  a  moment  afterwards,  he  perceived  that  his  compound  had  not 
melted  in  the  least  degree!  It  had  charred  as  leather  chars,  but  no  part  of  the  surface 
had  dissolved.  There  was  not  a  sticky  place  upon  it.  To  say  that  he  was  astonished 
at  this  would  but  faintly  express  his  ecstasy  of  amazement.  The  result  was  abso- 
lutely new  to  all  experience — India-rubber  not  melting  in  contact  with  red-hot  iron! 
He  felt  as  Columbus  felt  when  he  saw  the  land  bird  alighting  upon  his  ship  and  the 
driftwood  floating  by.  In  a  few  years  more  his  labors  were  crowned  with  success. 

This  great  invention  made  it  possible  for  us  to  have  rubber  boots  and  rubber 
shoes  and  many  other  things  made  of  rubber. 

Up  to  this  time,  all  the  rubber  was  called  Para  rubber,  named  from  the  town 
of  Para  in  Brazil,  from  which  all  rubber  was  shipped.  The  full-grown  tree  is  quite 


THE  STORY  OF  RUBBER 


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THE  STORY  OF  RUBBER 


large,  ranging  sixty  feet  and  over  in  height  and  about  eight  feet  around  the  trunk. 
It  has  a  flower  of  pale  green  color  and  its  fruit  is  a  capsule  containing  three  small 
brown  seeds,  with  patches  of  black.  These  seeds  lose  their  life  very  quickly,  so  a 
great  deal  of  care  is  necessary  to  pack  them  if  they  are  wanted  to  plant  in  another 
place.  The  safest  way  is  to  lay  them  loosely  in  a  box  of  dry  soil  or  charcoal. 

The  rubber  tree  grows  best  in  rich,  damp  soil  and  in  countries  where  the  tempera- 
ture is  eighty-nine  to  ninety-four  degrees  at  noon-time  and  not  less  than  seventy-four 


1 


Courtesy  of  the  United  States  Rubber  Co.        RUBBER  TwiGS 

V 

degrees  at  night,  and  where  there  is  a  rainy  season  for  about  six  months  in  the  year, 
and  the  soil  and  atmosphere  is  damp  the  year  round. 

The  name  of  this  species  of  tree  is  Hevea,  but  many  years  ago  it  was  called 
Siphonia  on  account  of  the  Omaqua  Indians  using  squirts  made  of  a  piece  of  pipe 
stuck  into  a  hollow  ball  of  rubber. 

How  did  Rubber  Growing  Spread  to  Other  Places? 

Back  in  the  seventies  an  English  botanist,  Wickham  by  name,  smuggled  many 
Hevea  seeds  out  of  Brazil.  The  tree  was  found  to  grow  well  in  the  Eastern  tropics 
and  today  the  rubber  plantations  of  Ceylon,  Borneo,  the  Malay  Peninsula  and 
neighboring  regions  are  producing  more  than  half  of  the  world's  supply  of  crude 
rubber.  Here  the  natives  work  under  pleasant  climatic  conditions  and  the  trees 
under  cultivation  grow  better  and  yield  better  than  in  the  forest. 

On  these  plantations,  rubber  trees  are  cultivated  just  the  same  as  other  crops. 
All  weeds  are  removed  and  great  care  is  used  with  the  young  trees.  Low-growing 
plants  which  absorb  nitrogen  from  the  air  which  enriches  the  soil,  such  as  the  passion 
flower  and  other  sensitive  plants,  were  planted  around  these  small  rubber  trees,  for 
it  was  found  that  when  the  weeds  were  removed  to  give  the  trees  a  chance  to  grow, 
the  ground  become  hard  and  dry. 

The  method  of  tapping  is  different,  too.     Instead  of  ten  to  thirty  taps,  a  series 


THE  STORY  OF  RUBBER 


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THE  STORY  OF  RUBBER 


of  cuts  the  shape  of  a  V  is  made  on  four  sides  of  the  tree,  from  the  bottom  up  to  as 
high  as  a  man  can  reach,  and  a  cup  placed  at  the  point  of  the  V.  Another  way  is 
to  make  one  long  cut  down  the  tree  and  then  cut  out  slanting  channels  about  one 
foot  apart  into  this,  and  put  a  cup  at  the  bottom  of  the  long  cut;  another  is  making 
a  spiral  around  the  tree  with  the  cup  at  the  bottom. 

How  is  Rubber  Cured  on  Modern  Plantations? 

With  these  big  plantations  some  other  way  to  cure  the  rubber  had  to  be  devised 
from  the  smoking  process  used  in  curing  the  native  rubber  which  comes  from  South 
America.  The  milky  juice  is  emptied  from  the  cups  into  a  tank  and  lime  juice  is 
added  and  it  is  then  allowed  to  stand.  The  juice,  as  it  comes  from  the  tree,  contains 
considerable  water:  the  lime  juice  is  added  to  separate  the  rubber  from  the  water. 


A  YOUNG  RUBBER  PLANTATION 

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Sometimes  separators  are  used  much  like  our  cream  separators;  in  fact,  the 
whole  process  and  the  appearance  of  the  interior  of  these  rubber  " dairies"  very 
much  resembles  our  own  dairies  where  real  milk  is  made  into  butter,  curds  or  cheese. 

Para,  at  the  mouth  of  the  Amazon,  and  Manaos,  a  thousand  miles  up,  are  both 
modern  cities  of  more  than  one  hundred  thousand  population.  They  have  schools, 
churches,  parks,  gardens  and  museums,  and,  except  for  the  Indians,  certain  peculiarities 
in  architecture  and  the  ever-present  odor  of  rubber,  they  differ  but  little  from  our 
northern  cities  of  equal  size.  Here  the  rubber  markets  are  located  and  here 
the  rubber  is  carefully  examined,  graded,  boxed  and  shipped  to  New  York  or 
Liverpool. 

Plantation  rubber  usually  comes  in  the  form  of  sheets  of  various  shapes  and 
sizes.  The  rubber  shown  here  is  in  oblong  sheets.  Sometimes  it  is  in  the  form  of 
"pancakes"  or  in  "blocks."  Often,  after  being  coagulated,  it  is  smoked,  and  "smoked 
plantation  sheet"  is,  next  to  Para,  the  best  rubber  obtainable. 


THE  STORY  OF  RUBBER 


in 


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THE  STORY  OF   RUBBER 


How  is  Crude  Rubber  Received  Here? 

Crude  rubber  is  received  in  many  forms  under  various  names.     There  are  more 

than  three  hundred  standard  kinds,  depending  on  source  and  method  of  handling; 

e.  g.t  "Sernamby"  is  simply  bundles  of  Para 
tree  scrap  and  scrap  from  the  cups  where 
milk  has  cured  in  the  open  air.  "Guayule" 
is  a  resinous  rubber  secured  from  a  two-foot 
shrub  that  grows  on  the  arid  plains  of  Texas 
and  Northern  Mexico. 

Our  picture  shows  a  bin  of  crude  up-river 
Para  the  finest  rubber  known.  Every  "bis- 
cuit" or  "ham"  has  been  cut  in  two  to  find 
out  whether  the  native  has  loaded  it  in  any 
way. 

How  is  Rubber  Prepared  for  Use? 

Now  that  we  have  rubber  so  that  it  can 
be  used,  we  find  there  are  a  great  many  opera- 
tions necessary  between  gathering  the  crude 
rubber  and  finally  the  finished  rubber  coat 
or  shoe.  These  various  operations  are  called 
washing,  drying,  compounding,  calendering, 
cutting,  making,  varnishing,  vulcanizing  and 
packing  and  each  one  of  these  main  opera- 
tions requires  several  smaller  operations. 

The  grinding  and  calendering  depart^ 
ment  is  the  one  in  which  the  crude  rubber 
is  washed,  dried,  compounded  and  run  into 
sheets  ready  to  be  cut  into  the  various 
pieces  which  constitute  a  boot  or  shoe. 
The  cultivated  rubber  comes  practically  clean,  but  the  crude  rubber  "biscuits" 

•contain  more  or  less  dirt  and  foreign  vegetable  matter  which  have  to  be  removed. 

The  rubber  is  softened  in  hot  water  for  a  number  of  hours  and  then  passed  through 

the  corrugated  rolls  of  a 

wash  mill   in    which   a 

stream  of  water  plays  on 

the  rubber  as  it  is  thor- 
oughly  masticated    and 

formed  into  thin  sheets. 

These  sheets  are   taken 

to  the  drying  loft.    Here 

they  are  hung  up  so  that 

the  warm  air  can  readily 

circulate   through   them 

and   are   allowed  to  re- 
main from  six  to  eight 

weeks,  until  every  trace 

of  moisture  has  been  re- 
moved.     The     vacuum 

dryer  is  used  where  rub- 


ANOTHER  CEYLON  TAPPING  METHOD — 
THE  HERRINGBONE 

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RUBBER  MARKET  IN  MANAOS 

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ber  is  wanted  dry  in  a  short  space  of  time.  This  is  a  large  oven  containing  shelves. 
The  wet  sheets  of  rubber  are  cut  in  square  pieces,  placed  on  perforated  tin  pans  and 
loaded  into  the  dryer,  which  will  hold  about  eight  hundred  pounds  of  rubber.  The 


THE  STORY  OF  RUBBER 


113 


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THE  STORY  OF  RUBBER 


TAPPING  HEVEA  RUBBER  TREE  ON  CEYLON  PLANTATION 

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doors  are  closed,  fastened,  and  by  the  vacuum  process  the  water  is  extracted, 
leaving  the  rubber  perfectly  dry  in  about  three  hours'  time. 

After  the  rubber  is 
dry,  and  has  been  tested 
by  the  chemist,  it  goes 
to  the  grinding  mills 
where  it  is  refined  on 
warm  rolls  and  made 
ready  for  the  compound- 
ing or  mixing.  It  is 
impossible  to  make  out 
of  rubber  alone,  shoes  or 
other  products  that  will 
withstand  extreme 
changes  in  temperature; 
certain  amounts  of  sul- 
SOFTENING  VATS  phur  litharge  and  other 

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in  combination  with  the 

pure  rubber  to  give  a  satisfactory  material.  The  gum  from  the  grinding  mills  is 
taken  to  the  mixing  mills,  where,  between  the  large  rolls,  the  various  materials 
are  compounded  into  a  homogeneous  mass.  The  compounded  rubber  goes  from 
the  mixing  mills  to  refining  mills,  to  be  prepared  for  the  calenders. 


THE  STORY  OF  RUBBER 


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116 


THE  STORY  OF  RUBBER 


Automobile,  motorcycle  and  bicycle  tires,  belting,  footwear  and  many  other 
rubber  articles  must  have  a  base  or  backbone  of  cotton  fabric,  and  in  order  that  the 
fabric  may  unite  firmly  with  the  rubber  it  must  be  "frictioned"  or  forced  full  of 

rubber.  This  is  done 
by  drawing  it  between 
enormous  iron  rollers, 
rubber  being  applied  on 
'*>*  surface  as  it  passes 
through.  The  pressure 
is  so  great  that  every 
opening  between  the 
fibers  of  cotton,  every 
space  between  threads  is 
forced  full  of  rubber. 

The  fabric  is  then 
ready  to  go  with  the 
milled  rubber  to  the 
various  departments  of 
the  factory  to  be  incorpo- 


THE MILL  ROOM 

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rated  into  rubber  goods.     The  calender  is  also  used  to  press  rubber  into  sheets  of 
uniform  thickness. 

How  are  Rubber  Shoes  Made? 

In  making  footwear,  the  linings  and  such  parts  as  can  be  piled  up  layer  on  layer 
are  cut  by  dies,  usually  on  the  large  beam-cutting  machines,  commonly  seen  in 
leather  shoe  factories.  The  uppers  are  cut  by  hand  from  the  engraved  sheets,  while 
metal  patterns  are  used  on  the  plain  stock.  The  soles  are  cut  by  specially  designed 
machines.  The  sheets  of  rubber  from  which  the  uppers  and  soles  are  cut  are  at  this 
stage  of  the  wo^k  plastic  and  very  sticky.  It  is  necessary  on  this  account  to  cut  the 
various  pieces  one  by  one  and  keep  them  separate,  by  placing  them  between  the  leaves 
of  a  large  cloth  book.  In 
an  ordinary  rubber  shoe 
there  are  from  twelve  to 
fifteen  pieces,  while  in  a 
common  boot  there  are 
over  twenty-five  pieces. 

The  various  pieces 
are  next  delivered  to 
the  making  department, 
where  they  are  fitted 
together  on  the  "lasts" 
or  "trees"  in  such  a  way 
that  all  the  joints  and 
seams  are  covered  and 
the  lines  of  the  shoe 
kept  exactly.  Consid- 
erable skill  is  required  to  do  this,  as  all  the  joints  and  seams  must ^  be  rolled  down 
smooth  and  firm  to  ensure  a  solid  boot  or  shoe.  The  goods  are  all  inspected  before 
they  are  loaded  on  the  iron  cars  to  go  to  the  varnishing  department,  where  they 
receive  the  gloss  which  makes  them  look  like  patent  leather. 

From  the  varnishing  department  the  shoes  are  taken  to  the  vulcanizers,  which 
are  large  ovens  heated  by  innumerable  steam  pipes.  The  shoes  remain  in  these 
vulcanizers  from  six  to  seven  hours,  subjected  to  extreme  heat.  This  heating  or 


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THE  STORY  OF  RUBBER 


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THE  STORY  OF  RUBBER 


THE  STORY  OF  RUBBER 119 

vulcanizing  process  fixes  the  elasticity  of  the  rubber,  increases  its  strength  enormously 
and  unites  the  parts  in  such  a  way  as  to  make  the  shoe  practically  one  piece. 

The  shoes  next  go  to  the  packing  department,  where  they  are  taken  off  the  "lasts," 
inspected,  marked,  tied  together  in  pairs,  sorted  and  packed.  They  are  then  sent  to 
the  shipping  department  to  be  shipped  immediately  or  stored  in  one  of  the  spacious 
storehouses. 

How  are  Automobile  Tires  Made? 

In  making  tires,  the  strips  of  fabric  are  built  together  about  a  steel  core  to  form 
the  body  or  carcass  of  the  tire.  The  beads  are  also  added.  The  side  strips,  the 
breaker  strip  and  finally  the  tread  are  applied.  All  of  these  pieces  are  sticky,  and 
as  they  are  laid  together  and  rolled  down  by  small  hand  rollers  they  adhere  to  each 
other,  and  when  the  tire  is  completed  it  looks  very  much  like  the  tires  you  see  on 
automobiles,  but  it  is  not  yet  vulcanized.  The  rubber  is  much  like  tough,  heavy 
dough — there  is  not  much  stretch  to  it  and  in  a  cold  place  it  would  become  hard 
and  brittle. 

The  tire  on  its  steel  core  is  taken  to  the  mold  room  and  placed  in  a  steel  box  or 
mold,  shaped  to  exactly  enclose  it.  It  is  then  placed  with  many  others  on  a  steel 
frame  and  lowered  into  a  sort  of  a  well  or  oven,  where  it  remains  for  a  time  under 
pressure  in  the  heat  of  live  steam,  after  which  it  is  removed,  a  finished  tire. 

Vulcanization  is  simply  the  heating  of  the  rubber  mixed  with  sulphur — this 
causes  a  chemical  change  in  the  substance;  ft  becomes  tougher,  more  elastic  and 
less  affected  by  heat  and  cold. 

This  process,  discovered  in  1839,  made  rubber  the  useful  substance  it  is  today. 
The  discoverer,  Charles  Goodyear,  to  whom  we  referred  before,  was  never  connected 
in  any  way  except  by  name  with  any  of  the  manufacturers  of  the  present  day,  but 
his  discovery  was  the  real  beginning  of  a  great  industry. 


How  did  the  Expression  "Before  you  can  say  Jack  Robinson"  Originate? 

Jack  Robinson  was  a  man  in  olden  days  who  became  well  known  because  of 
the  shortness  of  his  visits  when  he  came  to  call  on  his  friends,  according  to  Grose, 
who  has  looked  up  the  subject  very  carefully.  When  the  servants  at  a  home  where 
Jack  Robinson  called  went  to  announce  his  coming  to  the  host  and  his  assembled 
guests,  it  was  said  that  they  hardly  had  time  to  repeat  his  name  out  loud  before  he 
would  take  his  departure  again.  Another  man,  Halliwell,  who  has  also  investigated 
the  development  of  the  expression,  thinks  that  it  was  derived  from  the  description 
of  a  character-  in  an  old  play,  "Jack,  Robes  on." 

It  is  also  interesting  to  learn  that  the  sandwiches  which  we  all  enjoy  so  much 
at  picnics  are  so  called  because  of  the  fact  that  an  English  nobleman,  the  Earl  of 
Sandwich,  always  used  to  eat  his  meat  between  two  pieces  of  bread. 

What  is  an  Aerial  Railway  Like? 

Wonderful  ingenuity  has  been  shown  in  contriving  a  means  to  enable  people 
to  ascend  the  Wetterhorn  Mountain  in  Switzerland.  The  sides  of  the  mountain 
are  so  irregular  and  rough  in  their  formation  that  it  was  found  impossible  to  build 
even  the  incline  type  of  railway,  such  as  is  usually  resorted  to  where  the  ascent  to 
a  mountain  is  particularly  steep.  So  the  engineers  who  studied  the  problem  finally 
contrived  two  huge  sets  of  cables,  securely  fastened  at  the  top,  and  fixed  to  a  landing 
place  a  short  distance  from  the  base  of  the  mountain.  Cars,  holding  twenty  pas- 
sengers each,  are  carried  up  and  down  these  cables,  one  car  balancing  the  other,  by 
means  of  a  cable  attached  to  each,  which  passes  around  a  drum  at  the  top. 


120 


WHAT  IS  AN  AERIAL  RAILWAY  LIKE 


THE  WETTERHORN  AERIAL  RAILWAY 

Reproduced  by  permission  of  The  Philadelphia  Museums. 


HOW  FAR  AWAY  IS  THE  SKY-LINE  121 


There  is  probably  no  railway  in  all  Europe  upon  which  travel  affords  more 
wonderful  scenery  than  this  trip,  suspended  in  the  air,  up  the  side  of  the  Wetterhorn 
Mountain,  the  three  peaks  of  which  are  all  considerably  more  than  two  and  a  quarter 
miles  high. 

Why  are  They  Called  "  Newspapers  "? 

Although  something  like  an  official  newspaper  or  government  gazette  existed 
in  ancient  Rome,  and  Venice  in  the  middle  of  the  sixteenth  century  also  had  official 
news  sheets,  the  first  regular  newspaper  was  published  at  Frankfort  in  1615.  Seven 
years  later  the  first  regular  newspaper  appeared  in  England. 

It  was  customary  to  print  the  points  of  the  compass  at  the  top  of  the  early 
single-sheet  papers,  to  indicate  that  occurrences  from  all  four  parts  of  the  world  were 
recorded.  Before  very  long,  the  publisher  of  one  of  the  most  progressive  papers 
rearranged  the  letters  symbolic  of  the  points  of  the  compass,  into  a  straight  line,  and 
printed  the  word  NEWS,  and  in  a  very  short  time  practically  every  newspaper 
publisher  decided  to  adopt  the  idea. 

It  is  interesting  to  find  that  American  colonies  were  not  far  behind  England 
in  establishing  newspapers,  and  equally  interesting  to  know  that  the  most  remark- 
able development  of  the  newspaper  has  been  in  the  United  States,  where,  in  propor- 
tion to  population,  its  growth  and  circulation  has  been  much  greater  than  in  any 
other  country.  Practically  a  half  of  all  the  newspapers  published  in  the  world  are 
published  in  the  United  States  and  Canada. 

Every  trade,  organization,  profession  and  science  now  has  its  representative 
journal  or  journals,  besides  the  actual  newspapers  and  magazines  of  literary  character, 
and  Solomon's  remark  might  be  paraphrased  to  read:  "To  the  making  of  newspapers 
there  is  no  end." 

The  great  and  rapid  presses  of  recent  years,  the  methods  of  mechanical  type- 
setting and  the  cheapness  and  excellence  of  photographic  illustrations,  have  all  been 
necessary  elements  of  the  great  sheets  and  enormous  circulations  of  the  present  day, 
and  the  twentieth  century  newspaper  is  one  of  the  greatest  achievements  in  the  whole 
field  of  human  enterprise. 

How  Did  the  Cooking  of  Food  Originate? 

As  soon  as  man  found  that  he  could  produce  fire  by  friction,  as  the  result  of 
rapidly  rubbing  two  sticks  together,  he  began  to  have  accidents  with  his  fires,  just 
as  we  do  today.  And  it  was  probably  because  of  one  of  these  accidents,  in  which 
some  food  was  cooked  quite  unintentionally,  that  primitive  man  made  the  great 
discovery  that  most  of  the  meats  and  fruits  and  roots  that  he  had  been  accustomed 
to  eating  raw,  were  far  better  if  they  were  put  in  or  near  the  fire  for  a  while  first. 

How  Far  Away  is  the  Sky-Line? 

Unless  you  happen  to  be  of  the  same  height  as  the  person  standing  next  to  you, 
the  sky-line  is  a  different  distance  away  from  each  of  you,  for  it  is  really  just  a 
question  of  the  distance  the  eye  can  see  from  different  heights  above  the  sea-level 
A  person  five  feet  tall,  standing  on  the  beach  at  the  seaside,  is  able  to  see  about 
two  and  three-quarter  miles  away,  while  one  a  foot  taller  can  see  about  a  quarter 
of  a  mile  further. 

A  person  on  the  roof  of  a  house  a  hundred  feet  high  is  able  to  see  mo.re  than 
thirteen  miles  away,  on  a  clear  day,  and  a  forty-two  mile  view  may  be  enjoyed  from 
the  top  of  a  mountain  a  thousand  feet  high.  The  aviator  who  goes  up  to  a  level 
a  mile  above  the  sea  is  able  to  see  everything  within  a  radius  of  ninety-six  miles  and 
the  further  up  he  goes  the  larger  the  earth's  circle  becomes  to  him. 


The  Story  of  Rope 


Everybody  knows  what  rope  is,  but  everybody  does  not  know  how  rope  is  made 
or  of  what  kinds  of  fiber  it  is  manufactured.  And  very  few  probably  know  the  history 
of  rope  making,  or  how  it  developed  from  the  simple  thread  to  the  great  cable  which 

now  holds  giant  vessels  to  their  wharves 
or  aids  to  anchor  them  in  ocean  storms. 
Let  us  go  back  and  try  to  trace 
the  history  of  the  rope.  It  is  a  long 
one,  going  out  of  sight  in  the  far  past. 
In  very  early  times  men  must  have 
used  some  kinds  of  cords  or  lines  for 
fishing,  for  tying  animals,  at  times  for 
tying  men.  These  may  have  been 
strips  of  hide,  lengths  of  tough,  flexible 

.,  _  wood,  fibrous  roots,  and  such  gifts  of 

SCENE    IN    EGYPTIAN    KITCHEN,    SHOWING        natllrp     «nrl    in    timp    nil    thp^P    WPFP 
USE  OF  A  LARGE  ROPE  TO  SUPPORT  A  SORT  OF  re'  ,an 

HANGING  SHELF  twisted  together  to  make  a  longer  and 

stronger  cord  or  rope. 

We  have  evidence  of  this.  Tribes  of  savages  still  have  in  use  cords  made  of 
various  materials  and  some  of  them  very  well  made.  These  have  been  in  use 
among  them  for  long  centuries.  Take  the  case  of  our  own  Indian  tribes.  They  long 
made  use  of  cordage  twisted  from  cotton  and  other  fibers,  or  formed  from  the  inner 
bark  of  various  trees  and  the  roots  of  others,  and  from  the  hairs,  skins  and  sinews 
of  animals. 

Good  rope  was  made  also  by  the  old  Peruvians,  by  the  South  Sea  Islanders, 
and  by  the  natives  of  many  other  regions.  Those  on  the  seashore  made  fishing 


REPRODUCTION  OF  SCULPTURE  FROM  A  TOMB  IN  THEBES,  SHOWING  PREPA- 
RATION OF  LEATHER  CORDS  BY  PROCESS  SIMILAR  TO  ROPE  MAKING 

lines  and  well-formed  nets,  and  certain  tribes,  among  them  the  Nootka  Indians, 
harpooned  the  whale,  using  cords  made  from  the  sinews  of  that  animal,  these  being 
very  strong  and  highly  pliable.  The  larger  ropes  used  by  them,  two  inches  in  diameter, 
were  made  from  the  fibrous  roots  of  the  spruce. 

Civilized  Rope  Makers. 

All  the  ancient   civilized  peoples  used  ropes  and   cordage,   made  from  such 
flexible  materials  as  their  countries  afforded.     We  have  pictures  of  this  from  ancient 


*  Illustrations  by  courtesy  of  Plymouth  Cordage  Co. 


(12  ) 


THE  STORY  OF  ROPE 


123 


CORDAGE  MANUFACTURE  BY  THE  ROPE  WALK  METHOD 

Yarns  passing  from  bobbins  through  perforated  plates  in  forming  of  strands. 

Top  truck  used  in  laying  of  rope. 
m  Forming  machine  making  strands. 

Closing  tarred  Russian  hemp  cable,  15%  inch  circumference,  for  Argentine 
Battleship  "Rivadavia." 


124 THE  STORY  OF  ROPE    

Egypt,  in  which  the  process  of  twisting  strips  of  leather  into  rope  is  shown  on  the 
walls  of  their  tombs.  One  workman  is  seen  cutting  a  long  strand  from  a  hide  which 
he  turns  round  as  he  cuts,  while  another  man  walks  backward  with  this,  twisting 
it  as  he  goes.  The  Egyptians  also  made  ropes  from  papyrus  and  palm  fibers,  of 
which  specimens  still  exist.  Only  by  the  use  of  large  and  strong  ropes  could  they 
have  moved  the  massive  stones  seen  in  their  pyramids  and  temples. 

When  men  began  to  move  boats  by  sails,  ropes  of  some  kind  must  have  been 
needed,  and  the  early  ships  no  doubt  demanded  long  and  strong  cordage.  We  have 
pictures  of  these  from  several  centuries  before  the  Christian  era,  and  we  are  told 
by  Herodotus  that  Xerxes,  when  he  built  his  famous  bridge  of  boats  across  the 
Hellespont,  480  B.  C.,  fastened  them  together  by  enormous  cables  which  stretched 


EARLY  TYPE  OF  MACHINE  FOE  SPINNING  ROPE  YARN 

from  shore  to  shore,  a  distance  of  nearly  a  mile.     Twelve  of  these  ropes  were  used, 
about  nine  inches  thick,  some  of  them  being  made  of  flax  and  others  of  papyrus. 

During  the  medieval  and  later  centuries  rope  making  was  an  active  industry 
and  America  was  not  long  settled  before  the  rope  maker  became  active.  John 
Harrison,  an  English  expert  in  this  line,  set  up  a  rope  walk  in  Boston  in  1641  or  1642, 
and  for  many  years  had  a  monopoly  of  the  trade.  But  after  his  death  the  art  became 
common  and  in  1794  there  were  fourteen  large  ropewalks  in  that  city.  In  1810 
there  were  173  of  these  industries  in  the  United  States,  and  from  that  tune  on  the 
business  has  grown  and  prospered. 

Hand  Spinning. 

In  the  period  referred  to  all  the  work  was  done  by  hand,  machine  spinning  being 
of  later  date.  American  hemp  was  used,  this  softer  fiber  being  spun  by  hand  long 
after  Manila  hemp  was  spun  by  machines.  The  hand-making  process,  long  used, 
is  an  interesting  one.  The  first  step  was  to  " hackle"  the  hemp.  The  hackle  was  a 
board  with  long,  sharp  steel  teeth  set  in  it.  This  combed  out  the  matted  tow  of 
the  hemp  into  clean,  straight  fiber.  The  instrument  used  in  spinning  was  a  large 
wheel  turned  by  hand,  and  setting  in  motion  a  set  of  "  whirls"  or  revolving  spindles, 


THE  STORY  OF  ROPE 


125 


FOUR-STRAND  COMPOUND  LAYING  MACHINE  MAKING  STRANDS  AND  LAYING 
ROPE  IN  A  SINGLE,  CONTINUOUS  OPERATION 


126 


THE  STORY  OF  ROPE 


which  twisted  the  hemp  by  their  motion.     The  spinner  wrapped  a  quantity  of  the 
hackled  hemp  around  his  waist  and  attached  some  of  the  fibers  to  the  whirls,  which 


SlXTEEN-lNCH   TOWLINE   WITH   EYE   SPLICE 

twisted  the  hemp  as  he  walked  backward  down  the  ropewalk,  pulling  out  new  fiber 
from  his  waist  by  one  hand  and  pressing  it  into  form  and  size  with  the  fingers  of  the 
other. 

In  forming  a  small  rope,  two  of  the  yarns  thus  formed  were  twisted  together 


FORMATION  OF  SLIVER  (FOR  SPINNING)  ON  FIRST  BREAKER 

in  a  direction  opposite  to  that  of  the  first  twist.  Then  a  second  twisting  followed, 
the  direction  being  again  reversed.  Thus  rope  making  may  be  seen  to  consist  in  a 
series  of  twisting  processes,  each  twist  opposite  to  the  former,  the  rope  growing  in 
size  and  strength  at  each  operation.  Horse  power  or  water  power  was  used  when 
the  ropes  became  too  large  to  be  made  by  hand. 


THE  STORY  OF  ROPE 


127 


128 


THE   STORY  OF  ROPE 


Machine-made  Ropes. 

The  old  ropewalk  is  today  largely  obsolete,  the  rope-making  machine  taking  the 
place  of  the  hand-making  process,  which  was  not  adapted  to  produce  the  large 
cables  which  in  time  were  called  for.  Steam-driven  machines  were  first  introduced 
about  1838.  These  are  now  used  alike  in  making  fine  threads  and  yarns  and  in 
large  ropes. 

There  are  two  methods  in  the  modern  system  of  rope  making.     In  one  the  strands 

are  formed  on  one  type  of  machine  and 
twisted  into  a  rope  on  another.  In  the 
second  method  both  operations  are  per- 
formed on  a  single  machine.  The  latter 
saves  space,  but  is  not  so  well  fitted  for 
large  ropes  as  the  former.  A  plant  for  the 
two-part  method  comprises  two  or  more 
horizontal  strand-forming  machines,  sev- 
eral bobbin  frames,  and  a  vertical  laying- 
machine.  The  former  twists  several 
strands  into  a  rope,  the  latter  several 
ropes  into  a  cable. 

The  yarns,  which  are  wound  around 
bobbins,  are  drawn  from  them  through 
perforated  plates,  these  so  placed  that 
the  yarns  converge  together  and  pass 
into  a  tube.  In  this  they  are  compressed 
and  at  the  same  time  twisted  by  the  rev- 
olution of  a  long  carriage  or  flyer,  which 
can  be  made  to  vary  in  speed  and  direc- 
tion. After  being  twisted  the  strands 
are  wound  around  reels  in  readiness  for 
the  second,  or  laying  process. 

In  this  the  full  reels  are  lifted  by 
overhead  chains  and  are  placed  in  the 
vertical  flyers  of  the  laying-machine. 
Here  again  the  strands  are  made  to  pass 
through  openings  and  converge  into  a 
central  tube,  through  which  they  pass  to 
the  revolving  flyers,  which  perform  the 
final  duty  of  twisting  them  into  rope. 
The  finished  product  is  delivered  to  a 
belt-driven  coiling  reel  on  which  it  is 
wound. 

The  most  complete  rope-making 
machine  yet  reached  is  that  in  which 
these  two  machines  are  combined  into 
one.  It  economizes  space,  machinery 
and  workmen,  and  also  is  more  rapid  in  reaching  the  final  result.  But  there  are  dis- 
advantages which  render  it  unfit  for  the  larger  sizes  of  rope,  and  it  is  therefore 
used  only  on  a  limited  range  of  sizes. 

American  Hemp. 

Among  the  fibers  employed  in  rope  making  that  of  the  hemp  plant  long  held 
the  supremacy,  though  in  recent  years  it  has  been  .largely  supplemented  by  other 
and  stronger  fibers.  This  plant  is  a  native  of  Asia,  but  is  now  grown  largely  in  other 


REMOVING  REEL  WITH  COMPLETED  STRAND 
FROM  FORMING  MACHINE 


THE  STORY  OF  ROPE 


129 


How  PINE  TAB  is  MADE  IN  THE  SOUTH  ATLANTIC  STATES 

1.  Building  the  kiln. 
2.  Starting  fire.  3.  Racking  back  coals. 

4.  Tar  coming  from  kiln. 
5.  Dipping  and  barreling.  6.  Working  around  kiln. 

7.  After  hard  day  and  night. 
8.  Tar  makers  at  home.  9.  Burning  completed. 


130 


THE  STORY  OF  ROPE 


continents,  taking  its  name  from  the  country  in  which  it  is  raised,  as  Russian  hemp, 
Italian  hemp,  and  American,  or  Kentucky,  hemp,  it  having  long  found  a  home  in  the 
soil  of  Kentucky.  It  differs  from  the  Manila  fiber,  which  has  now  very  largely  sup- 
planted it,  by  being  much  softer,  though  of  less  strength.  In  the  old  days  of  the 
sailing  vessel  hempen  rope  was  largely  used  for  the  rigging  o'  merchant  and  war 
ships,  but  the  use  of  other  fibers  and  of  wire  for  rigging  has  greatly  reduced  the 
market  for  Kentucky  hemp.  There  are  various  other  fibers  known  under  the  name 
of  hemp,  the  New  Zealand,  African,  Java,  etc.,  but  the  Manila  and  Sisal  fibers,  since 
the  middle  of  the  last  century,  have  largely  taken  their  place. 

Manila  and  Sisal  Fibers. 

Manila  hemp,  as  it  is  called,  is  a  product  of  our  Philippine  dependency,  being 
obtained  from  a  species  of  the  banana  plant  which  grows  abundantly  in  those  islands. 


AMERICAN  HEMP  STACKED  IN  FIELDS 

Its  fiber  is  very  long,  ranging  from  six  to  ten  feet,  and  is  noted  for  its  smoothness 
and  pliability,  a  feature  which  makes  it  ideal  for  rope  making.  Gloss  and  brilliancy 
are  also  characteristics  of  good  quality  Manila. 

Manila  hemp  is  obtained  from  the  leaf  stalks  of  the  Philippine  plant  known  as 
the  Abaca,  the  leaf  stems  of  which  are  compressed  together,  and  constitute  the  trunk 
of  the  plant.  It  is  obtained  by  scraping  the  pulp  from  the  long  fibers,  drying  these 
when  thoroughly  cleaned,  and  baling  them  for  market. 

The  high  price  of  the  Manila  product,  however,  has  brought  a  cheaper  fiber, 
of  American  growth,  into  the  market;  this  being  that  known  as  Sisal,  extracted  from 
henequen,  a  cactus-like  plant  of  Yucatan.  As  a  substitute  for  or  rival  of  Manila  hemp 
it  has  come  into  common  use.  Its  cheapness  recommends  it  despite  the  fact  that 
it  is  not  of  equal  strength,  and  .also  that  its  fibers  are  shorter,  being  from  two  to  four 
feet  in  length.  Sisal  also  lacks  the  flexibility  of  Manila,  being  much  more  stiff  and 
harsh.  The  development  of  the  self-binding  reaper  on  our  western  grain -fields  has 
opened  a  gold  mine  for  Sisal  cordage.  Of  the  annual  import  of  this  fiber  to  the 
United  States,  300,000,000  pounds  in  quantity,  a  large  proportion  finds  its  way 


THE  STORY  OF  ROPE 


131 


PHILIPPINE  HEMP  CART 


LOADING  FIBER  FROM  SISAL  FIBER  PLANT  ONTO  PLANTATION  CAR 


132 


THE  STORY  OF  ROPE 


to  the  wheat  fields  of  the  West.  It  is  also  used  in  all  other  wheat-yielding 
countries. 

Henequen  is  now  grown  on  large  plantations,  the  plant  being  about  five  years 
old  before  the  long,  sword-like  leaves  are  ready  to  cut.  It  continues  to  yield  a  supply 
for  ten  or  twenty  years,  this  lasting  until  the  flower  stalk,  or  "pole,"  appears,  after 
which  the  plant  soon  dies.  As  Manila  fiber  is  at  times  adulterated  with  Sisal,  so 
has  the  latter  its  adulterant  in  a  plant  called  Istle,  which  grows  in  Mexico  and  has 
hitherto  been  chiefly  used  in  brush  making. 

These  are  the  chief  plants  used  in  rope  making.  To  them  we  may  add  con-, 
obtained  from  the  brush  of  the  cocoanut,  which  has  been  long  used  in  India,  and 


NEW  ZEALAND  HEMP  OB 
FLAX 


CRUDE  HAND  METHOD  OF  CLEANING  MANILA 
FIBER  ON  PLANTATION 


has  come  into  use  in  Europe  in  recent  years.  It  is  fairly  strong  and  has  the  advantage 
of  being  considerably  lighter  than  hemp  or  Manila.  And,  unlike  these,  it  does  not 
need  to  be  tarred  for  preservation,  as  it  is  not  injured  by  the  salt  water.  Two  other 
rope-making  fibers  of  importance  are  the  Sunn  hemp  of  India  and  cotton,  ropes  of 
the  latter  being  largely  used  for  certain  purposes,  such  as  driving  parts  of  textile 
machinery. 

Wire  Ropes. 

We  have  not  completed  the  story  of  rope  making.     There  is  the  wire  rope  to 
consider,  a  kind  of  cordage  now  largely  used  in  many  industries,  in  which  it  has 


THE  STORY  OF  ROPE 


I 

I 

I 

E 


PQ 

p 

I 


134 


THE  STORY  OP  ROPE 


superseded  hemp  ropes  and  chains.  These  seem  to  have  originated  in  Germany 
about  1821.  In  the  bridge  at  Geneva,  built  in  1822,  ropes  of  untwisted  wire,  bound 
together,  were  used,  and  some  fifteen  years  later  " stranded"  wire  ropes  were  employed 
in  the  Harz  mines.  These  at  first  were  made  of  high-class  wire,  but  only  steel  is 
now  used  in  their  manufacture.  A  strand  of  wire  rope  generally  consists  of  from  six 
to  nine  wires  and  sometimes  as  many  as  eighteen,  but  much  larger  ropes  are  made 
by  twisting  these  strands -together.  They  are  generally -galvanized  to  prevent  them 
from  rusting. 

The  applications  of  wire  ropes  are  very  numerous,  an  important  one  being  for 
winding  and  hauling  purposes  in  mines.  For  aerial  ropeways  they  are  extensively 
employed,  and  are  of  high  value  in  bridge  building,  the  suspension  bridge  being 
sustained  by  them.  The  strength  of  the  steel  wire  used  for  ropes  varies  from 


HANK  OF  MANILA  FIBER  TWELVE  FEET  LONG 

seventy  to  over  one  hundred  tons  per  square  inch  of  sectional  area,  the  weight  of 
a  hemp  rope  being  about  three  times  that  of  a  wire  rope  of  equal  strength. 

Pine  Tar  for  Ropes. 

Who  does  not  know  of  the  tarred  rigging  that  once  meant  so  much  to  the  rope 
maker?  Its  very  odor  seems  to  cling  to  the  pages  of  seafaring  books.  When  steam 
power  took  the  place  of  wind  power  in  ships  the  use  of  tarred  rigging  naturally 
declined,  yet  tarred  goods  still  form  an  important  branch  of  the  rope  business.  .Pine 
tar  is  the  kind  best  suited  for  cordage,  the  yellow,  longleaf,  or  Georgia  pine  holding 
the  first  rank  in  the  United  States  for  tar  making.  This  tree  is  found  along  the 
coast  region  from  North  Carolina  to  Texas. 

In  tar-kiln  burning  only  dead  wood  is  used,  the  green  tree  yielding  less  tar  and 
of  lower  quality.  It  is  a  slow  process,  as  a  brisk  fire  would  consume  the  wood  with- 
out yielding  tar.  As  the  tar  comes  from  the  kiln  it  is  caught  in  a  hole  dug  before  the 
outlet  and  is  dipped  up  and  poured  into  barrels,  the  average  yield  being  one  barrel 
of  tar  to  the  cord  of  wood.  As  above  said,  it  is  indispensable  to  protect  cordage 
exposed  to  the  effects  of  moisture,  except  in  the  case  of  coir  ropes.  Oiling  is  also  an 
important  process  in  the  manufacture  of  ropes  from  hard  fibers,  as  Manila,  Sisal 


THE  STORY  OF  ROPE 


INSPECTING  MANILA  FIBER  AT  DOCK 


SHIPPING  PLATFORM  OF  A  LARGE  FACTORY 


136 THE  STORY  OF  ROPE 

and  New  Zealand.     This  softens  them  and  makes  them  more  workable,  and  it  also 
acts  as  a  preservative. 

Why  does  Rope  Cling  Together? 

This  is  probably  due  to  a  degree  of  roughness  in  the  surface  of  fibers,  often 
imperceptible  to  the  eye,  yet  preventing  them  when  in  close  contact  from  slipping 
easily  upon  each  other.  This  is  greatly  increased  by  twisting  the  fibers  together, 
and  is  added  to  by  the  toughness  of  the  fibers  themselves,  the  whole  giving  to  rope 
a  great  resisting  power.  In  the  case  of  wire  rope  it  is  the  firmness  with  which  the 
metal  holds  together  that  gives  it  its  great  resisting  strength.  It  is  also  not  unlikely 
that  the  pressure  of  gravitation  takes  part  in  rope  making,  by  holding  the  fibers  in 
close  contact,  even  if  we  do  not  know  how  this  force  operates. 

What  is  Rope  Used  for? 

This  is  a  question  that  has  already  been  answered  in  great  part.  Its  uses,  in 
fact,  are  innumerable.  It  serves  to  hold  things  together,  and  also  to  hold  them  apart; 
to  lift  things  into  the  air  and  to  hold  them  down  to  the  ground;  to  pull  things  forward 
and  pull  things  back — but  not  to  push  things  forward.  For  the  latter  something 
less  flexible  than  rope  is  needed.  Animals  are  tied  or  tethered  by  it  and  led  by  it, 
and  man,  himself,  is  one  of  its  victims.  This  is  especially  the  case  in  the  dismal 
way  in  which  man's  career  upon  earth  has  so  often  been  ended  by  lifting  him  from 
the  ground  by  the  aid  of  a  rope  loop  around  his  neck.  It  is  of  some  comfort  to  know 
that  this  brutal  use  of  the  rope  is  being  replaced  by  more  humane  methods  of  ending 
the  lives  of  condemned  criminals. 


How  did  the  Expression  "  A-l  "  Originate? 

We  have  all  become  so  accustomed  to  hearing  the  term  "A-l"  used  to  designate 
a  thing  as  perfect  that  it  does  not  occur  to  many  of  us  to  wonder  how'  it  originally 
came  to  be  used  in  that  connection.  Its  first  use  was  as  a  symbol  in  the  code  by  which 
vessels  were  graded  in  the  register  of  shipping  kept  by  Lloyd's,  the  originators  of 
marine  insurance.  "A-l"  was  the  best  rating  given  to  the  highest  class  vessels, 
"A"  standing  for  perfect  condition  of  the  hull  of  the  ship  and  "1"  meaning  that 
the  rigging  and  whole  equipment  was  complete  and  in  good  order. 

How  has  Man  Helped  Nature  Give  Us  Apples? 

The  original  of  all  the  varieties  of  the  cultivated  apple  is  the  wild  crab,  which 
is  a  small  and  extremely  sour  fruit,  and  is  native  of  most  of  the  countries  of  Europe. 
We  use  the  crab-apple  for  preserving  even  now,  although  man's  ingenuity  has  suc- 
ceeded in  inducing  nature  to  give  us  many  better  tasting  kinds. 

The  amazingly  large  number  of  different  varieties  which  we  have  today  have 
all  been  brought  into  existence  through  the  discovery  of  the  process  of  "grafting." 
There  are  a  half  a  dozen  or  more  different  methods  of  grafting.  The  method  most 
commonly  practiced  in  working  with  apple  trees  is  called  "bud-grafting,"  and  con- 
sists of  transferring  a  plate  of  bark,  with  one  or  more  buds  attached,  from  one  tree 
to  another. 

The  wood  of  apple  trees  is  hard,  close-grained  and  often  richly  colored,  and 
is  suitable  for  turning  or  cabinet  work.  Apple-growers  classify  apples  into  three 
different  kinds,  each  consisting  of  a  great  many  separate  varieties.  The  three 
general  divisions  are — table  apples,  which  are  characterized  by  a  firm,  juicy  pulp, 
a  sweetish  acid  flavor,  regular  form  and  beautiful  coloring;  cooking  apples,  which 
possess  the  quality  of  forming  by  the  aid  of  heat  into  a  pulpy  mass  of  equal  con- 
sistency, and  also  by  their  large  size  and  keeping  properties;  and  cider  apples,  which 
have  a  considerable  astringency  and  a  richness  of  juice. 


HOW  HAS  MAN  HELPED  APPLES 


137 


138  WHAT  KIND  OF  CRABS  CLIMB  TREES 

What  Kind  of  a  Crab  Climbs  Trees? 

Besides  the  water-crabs  that  we  are  most  of  us  used  to  3eeing  and  eating,  there 
are  several  different  kinds  of  land-crabs.  Probably  the  most  interesting  of  them  all 
is  the  great  Robber-crab,  which  is  found  on  certain  islands  of  the  Pacific.  He  is  a 
creature  of  immense  strength  and  climbs  palm  trees  in  order  to  pick,  and  break  open, 
the  cocoanuts.  He  lives  in  a  den  which  he  digs  for  himself  in  the  ground. 

Darwin  gives  an  interesting  description  of  these  extraordinary  animals:  "I 
have  before  alluded  to  a  crab  which  lives  on  cocoanuts;  it  is  very  common  on  all 
parts  of  the  dry  land,  and  grows  to  a  monstrous  size.  The  front  pair  of  legs  terminate 
in  very  strong  and  heavy  pincers,  and  the  last  pair  are  fitted  with  others  weaker 
and  much  narrower.  It  would  at  first  be  thought  quite  impossible  for  a  crab  to  open 
a  strong  cocoanut  covered  with  husk,  but  Mr.  Liesk  assures  me  that  he  has  repeatedly 
seen  this  effected.  The  crab  begins  by  tearing  the  husk,  fiber  by  fiber,  and  always 
from  that  end  under  which  the  three  eye-holes  are  situated.  When  this  is  com- 
pleted, the  crab  commences  hammering  with  its  heavy  claws  on  one  of  the  eye-holes 
till  an  opening  is  made.  Then  turning  round  its  body,  it  extracts  the  white  albuminous 
substance  with  its  posterior  and  narrow  pair  of  pincers. 

"Every  night  it  is  said  to  pay  a  visit  to  the  sea,  no  doubt  for  the  purpose  of 
moistening  its  gills.  The  young  are  likewise  hatched,  and  live  for  some  time,  on  the 
coast.  These  crabs  inhabit  deep  burrows,  which  they  hollow  out  beneath  the  roots 
of  trees,  and  there  they  accumulate  surprising  quantities  of  the  picked  fibers  of  the 
cocoanut  husk,  on  which  they  rest  as  a  bed.  To  show  the  wonderful  strength  of  the 
front  pair  of  pincers,  I  may  mention  that  Captain  Moresby  confined  one  in  a  strong 
tin  box,  the  lid  being  secured  with  wire;  but  the  crab  turned  down  the  edges  and 
escaped.  In  turning  down  the  edges,  it  actually  punched  many  small  holes  through 
the  tin!" 

How  are  Files  Made? 

A  good  tool-kit  holds  a  number  of  files  of  various  shapes.  Some  are  flat,  others 
half-round,  three-sided,  square  and  round.  They  are  generally  thickest  in  the  middle, 
while  their  teeth  are  of  various  degrees  of  fineness  and  of  different  forms. 

A  file  whose  teeth  are  in  parallel  ridges  only  is  called  single-cut  or  float-cut. 
Such  are  mostly  used  for  brass  and  copper.  When  there  are  two  series  of  ridges 
crossing  each  other  the  file  is  double-cut,  which  is  the.  file  best  suited  for  iron  and  steel. 

Rasps  are  files  which  have  isolated  sharp  teeth  separated  by  comparatively  wide 
spaces,  and  are  chiefly  used  for  soft  materials  such  as  wood  and  horn. 

Each  of  these  three  classes  of  files  is  made  in  six  different  degrees  of  fineness,  the 
coarsest  being  called  rough,  the  next  middle,  followed  by  bastard,  second-cut,  smooth 
and  superfine  or  dead-smooth,  each  a  degree  finer  than  that  which  precedes  it. 

Files  are  usually  made  with  the  hand,  file-cutting  machines  not  having  been  as 
yet  perfectly  successful  on  account  of  the  delicacy  of  touch  required  in  the  work. 

The  blanks,  as  the  steel  before  it  has  teeth  is  called,  are  laid  on  the  anvil  and 
struck  with  the  chisel,  which  rests  obliquely  on  the  blank,  each  blow  raising  a  ridge  or 
tooth.  The  strength  of  the  blow  depends  on  the  hardness  of  the  metal,  and  when  one 
part  is  harder  than  another  the  workman  alters  his  blows  accordingly.  When  one 
side  is  covered  with  single  cuts  if  the  file  is  to  be  double  cut  he  adds  in  the  same 
manner  a  second  series,  crossing  the  others  at  a  certain  angle. 

In  making  fine  files  a  good  file-cutter  will  cut  upwards  of  two  hundred  teeth 
within  the  space  of  an  inch.  The  files,  except  those  that  are  used  for  soft  substances, 
are  hardened  by  heating  them  to  a  cherry-red  color  and  then  dipping  them  in  water. 
They  are  then  finished  by  scouring  and  rubbing  over  with  olive  oil  and  turpentine. 


The  Story  of  Self -Loading  Pistols* 

Colt  Pistols. 

The  machine  gun  of  the  present  day,  the  murderous  weapon  which  has  numbered 
its  victims  by  the  hundreds  of  thousands  during  the  European  war,  had  its  origin 
in  the  mind  of  a  man  whose  birth  dates  back  to  almost  exactly  one  hundred  years 
before  this  war  began,  that  of  Samuel  Colt,  born  at  Hartford,  Conn.,  on  July  19,  1814. 

The  small  arm  of  the  previous  period,  the  old  "  Brown  Bess/7  used  in  the  British 
army  for  150  years,  was  a  muzzle-loading,  flint-lock  musket  of  the  crudest  make. 


OUSTER'S  LAST  STAND 
The  revolver  played  a  large  part  in  Indian  warfare. 

The  only  important  improvement  made  in  it  during  that  long  term  of  service  was 
the  substitution  of  the  percussion  cap  for  the  flint  lock.  This  took  place  in  the  last 
period  of  its  use.  A  breech-loading  rifle  was  also  invented  about  this  time.  This 
was  the  "  Needle  Gun/'  of  which  60,000  were  issued  to  the  Prussian  army  in  1841, 
and  which  was  first  used  in  1848,  in  the  German  war  with  Denmark. 

The  Colt  pistol  had  appeared  before  this  date.  The  idea  of  it  grew  in  the  mind 
of  young  Colt  when  he  left  his  father's  silk  mill  and  shipped  as  a  boy  sailor  in  the 
ship  "Carlo,"  bound  from  Boston  to  Calcutta.  While  on  this  voyage  the  conception 
of  a  revolving  pistol  came  to  him,  and  he  whittled  out  a  rude  model  of  one  with  a 
penknife  from  a  piece  of  wood. 

*  Illustrations  by  courtesy  of  Colt's  Patent  Fire  Arms  Manufacturing  Co. 

(139) 


140 


THE  STORY  OF  SELF-LOADING  PISTOLS 


THE  STORY  OF  SELF-LOADING  PISTOLS 


141 


When  he  returned  he  sought  in  vain  to  interest  his  father  and  others  in  his  idea 
of  a  pistol  with  a  revolving  cylinder  containing  six  chambers  to  be  discharged  through 
a  single  barrel.  This  boyish  notion  won  no  converts,  and  at  the  age  of  eighteen 


GUN  MOUNTED  ON  LANDING  CARRIAGE  WITH  SHAFT  ATTACHMENT 

he  went  on  a  lecture  tour  on  chemistry,  under  the  dignified  title  of  Dr.  Coult.  These 
lectures  met  with  success,  and  he  used  the  money  made  by  them  in  developing  his 
pistol,  which  was  in  a  shape  to  patent  by  1835.  Patents  were  taken  out  by  him  in 


PACK  SADDLE  FOR  CARRYING  AUTOMATIC  MACHINE  GUN  AND  COMPLETE  EQUIPMENT 

this  and  the  following  year  in  the  United  States,  Britain  and  France,  and  in  1836 
he  established  the  "Patent  Arms  Company"  at  Paterson,  N.  J.,  with  a  paid-in  capita1* 
stock  of  about  $150,000.  This  was  a  bold  move  by  the  young  inventor,  then  just 
escaped  from  boyhood, 


142 


THE  STORY  OF  SELF-LOADING  PISTOLS 


THE  STORY  OF  SELF-LOADING  PISTOLS 


143 


Young  Colt  tried  in  vain  to 
interest  government  officials  in 
his  new  weapon,  their  principal 
objection  being  that  he  used  in 
it  the  new  percussion  caps  in- 
stead of  the  time-honored  flint- 
lock. But  success  came  during 
the  Seminole  War  of  1837,  when 
some  of  the  officers,  who  had 
seen  the  new  revolving  pistol, 
decided  to  give  it  a  trial  and 
sent  to  the  factory  for  a  supply. 

Its  value  was  soon  proved. 
The  Indians  looked  on  this 
weapon  that  could  be  fired  six 
times  after  one  loading,  as  some- 
thing magical.  It  was  too  much 
for  their  philosophy  and  the  war 
soon  came  to  an  end.  At  a 
later  date  it  was  used  by  the 
Texans  in  their  war  against  Mex- 
ico, and  from  that  time  on  every 
Texas  ranger  wanted  a  revolver. 
It  has  ever  since  been  the  favorite 
weapon  of  the  cowboy  and  fron- 
tiersman. 

But  wars  ran  out,  the  market 
closed,  and  the  "Patent  Arms 
Company"  failed.  What  put 
Colt  on  his  feet  again  was  the 
Mexican  war  a  few  years  later. 
General  Taylor  offered  Colt  a 
contract  for  one  thousand  revol- 
vers at  $24  each,  and  though 
the  young  inventor  was  looked 
upon  as  a  ruined  man  he  took  the 
contract,  got  together  the  neces- 
sary capital,  and  built  a  factory 
on  the  Connecticut  at  Hartford. 
From  that  time  on  there  was  no 
want  of  a  market.  The  "Forty- 
Niners"  took  revolvers  to  Cali- 
fornia, foreign  governments  sent 
orders  for  them,  and  armories 
were  built  in  England  and  in 
Russia  for  their  manufacture. 
Colt  died  in  1862,  but  the  Civil 
War  had  previously  opened  a 
great  market  for  his  pistols,  and 
before  the  conflict  ended  the  Colt 
factory  at  Hartford  was  in  a 
highly  flourishing  state.  •  In  the 
following  years  the  revolver  be- 


AUTOMATTC  PISTOL — GOVERNMENT  MODEL, 

CALIBER  .45 

In  this  model  the  slide  remains  open  after  firing 
the  last  cartridge.  When  reloading  the  arm  in  this 
position,  insert  the  magazine,  then  press  downward  the 
slide  stop  (to  the  rear  of  the  trigger  as  illustrated). 
The  slide  goes  forward,  inserting  a  cartridge  without 
any  movement  of  the  slide  by  hand.  The  slide  stop 
is  operated  by  the  thumb  of  the  hand  holding  the 
pistol. 


POLICE-POSITIVE  REVOLVER 

Adopted  by  the  Police  Departments  of  the  principal 
cities  of  the  United  States  and  Canada. 


AUTOMATIC  PISTOL — POCKET  MODEL,   HAMMERLESS 
The  action  of  this  pistol  is  automatic  except  that 
the  trigger  must  be  pulled  to  fire  each  shot;   continued 
discharge  will  not  result  from  one  pull  of  the  trigger. 


144 


THE  STORY  OF  SELF-LOADING  PISTOLS 


THE  STORY  OF  SELF-LOADING  PISTOLS 


145 


came  a  prime  necessity  in  dealing  with  the  Indians  of  the  West,  and  a  school-book 
statement  of  that  date  was  to  the  effect  that:  "The  greatest  civilizer  of  modern 
times  is  the  Colt  revolver."  Another  writer,  speaking  of  the  "Peacemaker,"  an 
effective  weapon  produced  after  1870,  said:  "It  has  the  simplicity,  durability,  and 
beauty  of  a  monkey-wrench." 

Machine  Guns. 

The  revolving  idea  was  applied  to  guns  about  1861  by  Richard  J.  Gatling,  the 
first  Gatling  guns  fitted  for  use  with  metalling  ammunition  being  produced  by  the 
Colt  Company  in  1870.  These  guns  had  ten  barrels  revolving  around  a  central  shaft 
and  in  their  developed  form  were  capable  of  being  fired  at  the  rate  of  one  thousand 
shots  a  minute.  The  first  of  these  to  be  used  prominently  in  warfare  was  the  French 


AUTOMATIC  GUN  MOUNTED  ON  AUTOMOBILE 

mitrailleuse,  used  by  France  in  the  war  of  1870-71.  The  Gatling  soon  made  its 
way  widely,  and  its  rapidity  of  fire  became  a  proverb.  If  anything  moved  quickly 
it  was  said  to  "go  like  a  Gatling"  or  "sound  like  a  Gatling." 

Other  guns  of  this  type  are  the  Hotchkiss,  the  Nordenfeldt  and  the  Gardner, 
and  a  more  recent  one  is  the  Maxim,  which,  after  the  first  shot  is  fired  by  hand  power, 
continues  to  fire  shot  after  shot  by  means  of  the  power  derived  from  the  explosion 
of  each  successive  cartridge.  In  the  early  form  of  the  revolver  the  empty  cartridge 
cases  had  to  be  ejected  from  the  cylinder  singly  by  an  ejector  rod  or  handy  nail. 
In  1898  a  new  type  was  introduced  with  a  lateral  swinging  cylinder  which  permitted 
the  simultaneous  ejection  of  all  the  empty  shells.  , 

Near  the  time  of  the  Spanish- American  War  appeared  what  is  known  as  the 
Colt  automatic  gun,  operated  by  the  action  of  the  powder  gases  on  a  piston  and  lever 
near  the  muzzle  of  the  barrel.  This  could  be  fired  at  the  rate  of  400  to  500  shots  a 
minute,  and  by  reason  of  its  light  weight  could  be  very  easily  carried.  The  British 
used  it  effectively  in  the  Boer  War. 

Today  the  Colt  Company  manufacture  revolvers  in  which  the  simultaneous 

ejection  of  the  cartridge-cases  and  recharging  of  the  chambers  is  combined  with  a 

strong,  jointless  frame;   automatic  magazine  pistols  in  which  the  pressure  of  the 

powder  gases,  as  above  said,  is  utilized  after  giving  the  proper  velocity  to  the  pro- 

10 


146  THE  STORY  OF  SELF-LOADING  PISTOLS 

jectile,  it  requiring  only  a  slight  continued  pressure  on  the  trigger  for  each  shot; 
automatic  machine  guns  firing  at  will  single  shots  or  volleys  while  requiring  only  a 
slight  pull  upon  the  trigger;  and  the  improved  manually-operated  Gatling  gun  firing 
the  improved  modern  ammunition.  The  cartridges  are  carried  on  a  tape  which  feeds 
them  with  the  necessary  rapidity  into  the  barrel. 

What  would  be  the  history  of  the  European  War  without  the  machine  gun  is 
not  easy  to  state,  but  as  a  highly  efficient  weapon  of  war  its  quality  has  been 
abundantly  proved. 


How  does  the  Poisonous  Tarantula  Live? 

When  the  National  Guardsmen  from  all  over  the  Union  were  concentrated 
along  the  Mexican  border,  many  reports  were  sent  home  of  thrilling  experiences 
with  tarantulas,  to  whose  bite  the  natives  of  Mexico,  Italy  and  many  other  warmer 
countries  have  ascribed  a  disease  called  "tarantism."  The  Italian  peasants  believe 
that  this  disease  can  only  be  cured  by  a  certain  kind  of  music. 

The  tarantula,  like  many  other  members  of  the  spider  family,  is  an  expert  in 
the  making  of  burrows.  Its  burrows  are  artfully  planned.  At  first  there  is  a  sheer 
descent  four  or  five  inches  in  depth,  but  at  that  distance  below  the  surface  the  tunnel 
turns  aside  before  dipping  straight  down  again  to  its  termination.  It  is  at  the  angle 
or  elbow  of  the  tunnel  that  the  tarantula  watches  for  the  approach  of  enemies  or 
prey,  like  a  vigilant  sentinel,  never  for  a  moment  off  its  guard,  lying  hidden  during 
the  day,  if  nothing  disturbs  it,  and  coming  out  at  nightfall  to  seek  its  prey. 

Unlike  most  other  spiders,  it  hunts  its  game  without  the  aid  of  webs  or  snares. 
It  does,  however,  possess  the  ability  to  spin  the  silk  which  we  have  all  seen  other 
spiders  make,  for,  in  digging  its  hole,  it  makes  neat  little  packages  of  the  dirt  it  has 
scraped  up,  bound  together  with  silk  and  slime  from  its  mouth,  and  flips  them  to 
one  side  out  of  the  way.  When  it  comes  to  hunting,  it  makes  sure  that  it  can  pounce 
on  its  prey,  by  building  the  entrance  of  its  hole  about  two  inches  in  diameter  and 
up  from  the  surface  an  inch  or  so,  so  that  it  can  spread  its  legs  for  the  leap. 

How  do  the  Indians  Live  Now? 

The  Indians  of  the  United  States  are  now  largely  gathered  into  reservations 
and  their  former  dress,  arms  and  habits  are  being  gradually  changed  for  those  of 
the  whites.  Civilization  is  invading  their  homes  and  driving  out  their  older  char- 
acteristics. This  is  especially  the  case  with  the  large  numbers  now  dwelling  in  the 
former  Indian  Territory,  now  Oklahoma,  although  those  confined  in  the  reservations 
of  Arizona,  New  Mexico  and  Montana  are  clinging  more  to  their  old  modes,  as  is 
shown  in  the  accompanying  illustrations. 

In  ancient  times  the  body  was  covered  with  furs  and  skins  according  to  the 
seasons,  but  now  the  white  man's  clothes  and  blanket  have  generally  superseded 
the  native  dress;  though  the  moccasin  of  deer  or  moose  hide,  and,  in  the  wilder  tribes, 
the  ornamental  leggings  and  head-dresses  are  still  retained.  Their  dwellings  are 
made  of  bark,  skins  and  mattings  of  their  own  making,  stretched  on  poles  fixed  in 
the  ground.  The  arms  of  the  wilder  tribes  consist  of  the  bow  and  arrow,  the  spear, 
tomahawk  and  club,  to  which  have  been  added  the  gun  and  knife  of  the  whites, 
Canoes  are  made  of  logs  hollowed  out,  or  of  birch  bark  stretched  over  a  light  frame, 
skilfully  fastened  with  deers'  sinews  and  rendered  water-tight  by  pitch. 

The  American  Indian  is  described  as  of  haughty  demeanor,  taciturn  and  stoical; 
cunning,  brave  and  often  ferocious  in  war;  his  temperament  poetic  and  imaginative, 
and  his  simple  eloquence  of  great  dignity  and  beauty.  They  have  a  general  belief 
in  Manitous,  or  spiritual  beings,  one  of  them  being  spoken  of  as  the  Great  Spirit. 


HOW  DO  THE  INDIANS  LIVE  NOW 


147 


MOEE   PlCTUKESQUE   THAN  BEAUTIFUL 

The  Apaches,  formerly  one  of  the  most  powerful  and  warlike  of  the  Indian  tribes,  are 
now  confined  to  reservations  in  Arizona  and  New  Mexico. 


148 


HOW  DO  THE  INDIANS  LIVE  NOW 


HOW  DOES  THE  BEACH  GET  ITS  SAND  149 

They  believe  in  the  transmigration  of  the  soul  into  other  men  and  into  animals, 
and  in  demons,  witchcraft  and  magic.  They  believe  in  life  after  death,  where  the 
spirit  is  surrounded  with  the  pleasures  of  the  "happy  hunting  grounds."  They 
adopt  a  "totem"  or  symbol  of  the  family  and  this  is  generally  some  animal,  the 
turtle,  bear  and  wolf  being  favorites. 

The  number  of  Indians  in  the  United  States  at  the  taking  of  the  Federal  Census 
in  1910,  was  265,683;  and  there  are  about  130,000  in  the  British  possessions,  1,500,000 
in  Central  America  and  4,000,000  in  Mexico.  In  all  North  America  there  are  some- 
where about  6,000,000  and  there  are  probably  10,000,000  more  in  South  America, 
many  of  them  being  more  or  less  civilized. 

How  does  the  Beach  Get  Its  Sand? 

Most  of  the  sands  which  we  find  on  the  beaches  and  in  other  places  are  the  ruins 
of  rocks  which  have  come  apart,  usually  as  the  result  of  the  action  of  water.  A 
large  part  of  the  ocean  bottom  is  made  up  of  "sandstone"  and  the  continual  washing 
of  the  water  over  this  causes  particles  to  break  away  and  float  off,  whereupon  they 
are  swept  up  upon  the  beaches  by  the  waves. 

Sands  differ  in  color  according  to  the  rocks  from  which  they  are  derived.  In 
addition  to  the  sands  on  the  beaches,  they  occur  very  abundantly  in  many  inland 
locations,  which  were  formerly  sea  bottoms,  and  very  extensively  in  the  great  deserts 
of  the  world. 

Valuable  metallic  ores,  such  as  those  of  gold,  platinum,  tin,  copper  and  iron, 
often  occur  in  the  form  of  sand  or  mixed  with  that  substance.  Pure  siliceous  sands 
are  very  valuable  for  the  manufacture  of  glass,  for  making  mortar,  filters,  ameliorating 
dense  clay  soils,  for  making  molds  in  founding  and  for  many  other  purposes. 

The  silica,  which  is  the  principal  ingredient  of  sand,  as  well  as  of  nearly  all  the 
earthy  minerals,  is  known  as  "rock  crystal"  in  its  naturally  crystallized  form. 
Colored  of  a  delicate  purple,  these  crystals  are  what  we  call  "amethysts."  Silica 
is  also  met  with  in  the  "carnelian"  and  we  find  it  constituting  jasper,  agate,  cat's- 
eye,  onyx  and  opals.  In  the  latter  it  is  combined  with  water.  Many  natural  waters 
present  us  with  silica  in  a  dissolved  state,  although  it  is  not  soluble  in  pure  water. 
The  resistance  offered  by  silica  to  all  impressions  is  exemplified  in  the  case  of  "flint" 
which  consists  essentially  of  silica  colored  with  some  impurity. 

How  did  Nodding  the  Head  Up  and  Down  Come  to  Mean  "  Yes  "? 

Like  a  multitude  of  other  things,  the  signs  which  we  give  by  the  movements 
of  our  heads  to  indicate  "yes"  and  "no"  were  copied  from  animal  life. 

When  the  mother  animal  brought  her  young  a  choice  morsel  of  food  she  would 
hold  it  up  temptingly  before  its  mouth  and  the  quick  forward  movement  of  the  head, 
with  mouth  open,  showed  the  young  animal's  desire  and  acceptance  of  the  offer. 
Even  today  when  we  make  a  forward  movement  of  our  heads  to  indicate  "yes" 
it  is  observed  that  the  lips  are  usually  quite  unconsciously  opened  a  little. 

In  much  the  same  manner,  when  the  young  had  been  well  fed  and  were  no  longer 
hungry,  a  tightly  closed  mouth  and  a  shaking  of  the  head  from  side  to  side  were 
resorted  to,  to  keep  the  mother  from  putting  the  food  into  their  mouths.  Our 
natural  impulse  now  is  to  slightly  clinch  our  teeth  when  we  shake  our  heads  to 
mean  "no/' 

Why  do  We  Call  a  Man  "  a  Benedict "  When  He  Marries? 

We  call  men  "benedicts"  when  they  become  married  because  that  was  the 
name  of  a  humorous  gentleman  in  Shakespeare's  play,  "Love's  Labor  Lost,"  who 
was  finally  married  to  a  character  named  "Beatrice." 


The  Story  in  Firecrackers  and 
Sky-Rockets* 

The  blaze  and  noise,  indispensable  to  patriotic  celebrations  among  all  peoples, 
was  produced  a  century  ago  in  America  by  simple  agencies.  Washington's  Birthday 
was  ushered  hi  by  cannon  salutes  in  every  garrisoned  place  hi  the  United  States, 
and  boys  the  country  over  built  bonfires  as  they  still  do  hi  old  New  England  towns 
to  celebrate  the  day.  But  the  Fourth  of  July  was  the  great  hurrah  tune  of  the  year, 
when  every  youth  who  owned  a  gun  or  could  borrow  one,  brought  it  into  use  as  a 
contribution  to  the  general  noise.  He  might  lack  shoes  and  be  short  of  shot  and 
bullets  for  hunting,  but  for  this  occasion  no  young  man  was  so  poor  as  to  have  failed 
to  lay  hi  a  hornful  of  powder,  and  at  the  stroke  of  twelve  midnight,  which  began 
the  day,  he  and  his  companions  blazed  away  with  guns  loaded  to  the  danger  point, 
and  kept  up  then*  fusillade  as  long  as  ammunition  lasted.  For  demonstrations  on 
a  larger  scale,  a  small  cannon  was  secured  if  possible,  but  lacking  this,  two  black- 
smith's anvils  were  made  to  do  the  same  service,  the  hole  in  the  top  of  one  being 
filled  with  powder,  a  fuse  laid  into  it  and  the  second  anvil  placed  as  a  stopper  upon 
the  first  before  the  charge  was  exploded. 

A  favorite  firearm  for  celebration  purposes  was  one  of  the  old  " Queens  Arm" 
muskets  which  were  common  in  country  communities,  being  trophies  captured  from 
the  British  during  the  Revolutionary  War.  One  of  these  cumbersome  flintlock 
pieces  might  be  loaded  halfway  to  the  muzzle  and  fired  without  bursting,  and  would 
roar  in  the  discharge  hi  a  way  highly  pleasing  to  patriotic  ears. 

It  was  near  the  close  of  the  eighteenth  century  that  Chinese  firecrackers  first 
came  into  use  hi  celebrating  the  American  Independence  Day.  For  many  years 
they  were  used  sparingly  and  only  hi  large  cities.  They  had  been  known  in  the 
New  England  coast  cities  ever  since  the  year  1787,  when  Elias  Haskett  Derby's 
ship  of  Salem,  the  first  American  vessel  to  engage  in  deep-water  commerce,  returned 
from  her  voyage  to  Calcutta,  China  and  Isle  of  France.  Among  the  things  she 
brought  back — more  as  a  curiosity  than  as  an  article  of  cargo — was  a,  consignment 
of  Chinese  firecrackers.  Then-  capabilities  in  aiding  the  uproar  on  the  Fourth  of 
July  were  quickly  recognized,  and  thereafter  every  ship  that  made  the  voyage  from 
Massachusetts  Bay  to  India  or  China  brought  back  firecrackers  with  the  tea,  silks 
and  rice.  In  tune,  rockets,  squibs  and  torpedoes  were  included  hi  the  consignment, 
but  it  was  not  until  the  middle  of  the  nineteenth  century  that  their  use  became 
general  in  America. 

The  tune  when  the  more  complicated  fireworks,  which  we  owe  both  to  Europe 
and  the  Orient,  came  into  vogue  hi  this  country,  no  one  perhaps  could  now  definitely 
tell.  Then*  use  was  known  to  our  seafaring  men  in  the  "forties,"  for  it  was  in  that 
decade  that  Capt.  Decimus  Forthridge,  of  the  American  brig  "Independence," 
showed  his  Yankee  pluck  and  resource  in  defeating  an  attack  of  Malay  pirates  with 
no  other  armament  than  fancy  fireworks.  During  his  voyage  in  the  East  Indies 
he  had  laid  in  a  supply  of  fireworks  with  which  to  celebrate  the  Fourth  of  July  in  a 
manner  worthy  an  American  captain.  For  some  reason  no  ammunition  was  avail- 
able for  swivels  or  muskets,  when,  hi  the  mid-watch  of  the  night,  two  war  proas, 
deeply  laden  with  armed  Malays,  were  seen  coming  quickly  up  on  the  vessel's 

*  Illustrations  by  courtesy  of  Consolidated  Fireworks  Company  of  America. 

(150> 


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152     STORY  IN  FIRECRACKERS  AND  SKY-ROCKETS 


STORY  IN  FIRECRACKERS  AND  SOT-ROCKETS     153 


154      STORY  IN  FIRECRACKERS  AND  SKY-ROCKETS 

quarter  as  she  lay  becalmed  off  Firabader  Point  in  the  Island  of  Sumatra.  The 
cry  of  "All  hands  on  deck  to  repel  pirates"  brought  the  crew  on  deck  in  haste,  but 
without  ammunition  the  chance  that  they  would  beat  the  enemy  off  was  a  long  shot 
compared  with  the  probability  that  the  throat  of  every  man  on  board  would  be  cut 
as  a  preliminary  to  plundering  and  scuttling  the  vessel.  Even  in  their  extremity 
the  crew  laugned  and  jeered  when  the  captain  ranged  them  along  the  quarter  rail 
with  boarding  pikes  and  empty  muskets  in  hand  to  give  the  enemy  the  idea  that 
they  were  ready  for  business,  and  then,  opening  the  box  of  fireworks,  he  began  to 
shoot  rockets  and  roman  candles  at  the  pirates.  If  the  crew  laughed,  the  Malays 
did  not,  and  when  the  captain  of  one  of  the  proas  was  struck  by  a  rocket,  both  crafts 
rested  oars  and  came  no  nearer.  But  while  Captain  Forthridge  was  attending  to  these, 
a  third  proa  came  up  unobserved  under  the  port  quarter,  and  the  first  that  was  known 
of  its  presence  was  the  attempt  of  its  occupants  to  board  the  vessel  by  the  chains. 
To  make  matters  worse  it  was  discovered  that  the  paper  wrappings  of  the  fireworks 
in  the  box  were  on  fire.  While  the  crew  with  clubbed  muskets  and  boarding  pikes 
kept  the  Malays  outside  the  rails,  Captain  Forthridge  picked  up  the  blazing  box, 
carried  it  to  the  chains,  and  while  the  mate  and  sailors  warded  the  spears  and 
krises  from  him,  dropped  it  into  the  proa.  The  box  was  blown  to  pieces  the  minute 
it  struck,  scattering  the  fireworks  through  the  proa,  and  with  firecrackers  snapping 
and  jumping  and  fiery  serpents  running  round  among  their  bare  legs,  the  Malays 
chose  to  take  their  chances  with  the  sharks,  and  all  hands  went  overboard  into  the 
water  at  double-quick.  A  little  breeze  came  up  and  the  brig  drew  away  from  the 
pirates,  leaving  the  two  proas  to  pick  up  those  Malays  from  the  water  that  the 
sharks  had  missed. 

In  the  days  of  the  China  clippers,  those  famous  ships  sailed  many  a  race  from 
Hong  Kong  and  Canton,  with  New  York  &  the  goal,  to  get  there  with  " first  tea" 
and  to  forestall  the  Fourth  of  July  market  with  a  cargo  of  firecrackers. 

In  China  and  the  East  Indies,  fireworks,  like  "the  fume  of  the  incense,  the 
clash  of  the  cymbal,  the  clang  and  the  blaze  of  the  gong,"  are  a  part  of  the  worship 
of  the  gods,  as  well  as  a  feature  of  coronations  and  weddings.  China  is  the  birth- 
place of  fireworks.  From  China  the  knowledge  of  them  spread  to  India,  and  in 
both  these  lands  rockets  were  used  as  missiles  of  war  as  early  as  the  ninth  century. 
The  Chinese  war  rocket  was  a  long,  heavy  affair,  fitted  at  the  end  with  a  barb-like 
arrow,  and  to  a  foe  unacquainted  with  firearms,  it  must  have  seemed  a  formidable 
missile.  After  gunpowder  was  introduced  in  Europe,  fireworks  came  into  use  on 
the  continent,  and  the  use  of  both  explosives  undoubtedly  was  learned  from  the 
Chinese. 

Fireworks  were  manufactured  in  Italy  as  early  as  1540,  and  in  France  we  have 
accounts  of  then-  employment  in  great  celebrations  between  the  years  1606  and  1739. 
Long  before  this  time,  some  form  of  rocket,  now  unknown,  that  would  burn  in  water, 
constituted  the  famous  Greek  fire  which  struck  terror  to  the  hearts  of  invaders- 
from  Northern  Europe  in  medieval  times  when  the  Saracens  launched  it  against 
their  ships.  Early  in  the  present  century  during  the  Napoleonic  Wars,  the  rocket 
perfected  by  Sir  William  Congreve  was  used  in  the  siege  of  Boulogne  and  in  the 
battle  of  Leipsic.  The  conditions  of  modern  warfare  have  so  changed  that  the 
rocket  is  no  longer  of  practical  use  in  fighting  except  as  a  signal.  In  case  of  ship- 
wreck it  is  often  employed  to  carry  a  line  from  the  shore  to  a  stranded  vessel.  It 
is  noteworthy  that  while  almost  every  kind  of  fireworks  is  manufactured  in  Europe 
and  the  United  States,  the  small  firecrackers  are  still  imported  from  China.  But 
larger  quantities  are  now  manufactured  in  the  United  States,  and  it  is  only  a  matter 
of  time  when  the  "Young  American"  salute  will  take  the  place  of  the  Chinese 
firecrackers. 

It  was  about  ten  years  before  the  Civil  War  that  "set  pieces"  began  to  form  a, 


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156     STORY  IN  FIRECRACKERS  AND  SKY-ROCKETS 


STORY  IN  FIRECRACKERS  AND  SKY-ROCKETS     157 


pa 
§ 

K 


158      STORY  IN  FIRECRACKERS  AND  SKY-ROCKETS 

part  of  fireworks  celebrations.  In  those  days  the  most  famous  pyrotechnic  display 
in  the  whole  country  was  given  on  Boston  Common  on  the  Fourth  of  July,  and  the 
country  boy  who  was  so  lucky  as  to  see  that  display,  with  the  miracle  of  George 
Washington's  benign  face  illuminated  amid  spouting  flames  and  a  shower  of  fireballs 
and  rockets,  had  something  to  talk  about  for  the  rest  of  the  year. 

The  American  Civil  War  whicii  did  so  much  toward  the  modern  development 
of  firearms  and  munitions  of  war,  brought  also  a  great  advance  in  pyrotechny,  and 
soon  after  the  close  of  the  struggle,  extensive  manufacture  of  fireworks  began  in 
this  country,  with  New  York  as  the  headquarters  of  the  principal  firms  engaged  in 
the  business. 

In  1865  the  first  displays  of  fireworks  in  the  United  States,  illustrating  his- 
torical events,  were  made  by  a  company  in  New  York  City.  They  were  the  pioneers 
in  this  line  of  displays.  Their  success  was  immediate,  and  from  these  displays  has 
grown  the  successes  of  today  in  pyrotechnics. 

Fireworks  now  enter  into  the  celebration  of  every  important  event  in  our 
national,  political  and  business  life.  The  celebrations  at  Washington,  D.  C.,  at  the 
inaugurations  of  our  Presidents,  the  coronations  of  emperors  and  kings  in  lands 
beyond  our  borders,  are  all  brought  to  a  close  by  brilliant  displays  of  fireworks. 

The  writer,  in  visiting  the  plant  of  a  large  fireworks  manufacturer,  found  that 
they  were  turning  out  large  quantities  of  time  fuses  and  primers  for  shrapnel  shells 
for  the  foreign  powers,  and  are  working  night  and  day  on  orders  for  the  United  States 
government  on  aeroplane  bombs  and  signals.  They  have  also  worked  out  a  search- 
light projectile  which  is  arranged  to  burst  in  the  air,  throwing  out  a  number  of 
luminous  bodies  that  light  up  the  surrounding  country  and  reveal  the  movements 
of  the  enemy. 

All  large  displays  of  fireworks  are  now  fired  by  electricity  and  every  known  color 
and  effect  is  produced  by  the  pyrotechnist  of  the  present  day. 

The  water  displays  are  scarcely  less  varied,  consisting  of  flying  fish,  diving 
devils,  prismatic  fountains,  floating  batteries,  fiery  geysers  and  submarine  torpedoes, 
all  of  which,  being  ignited  and  thrown  into  the  water,  go  through  their  stunts  as 
readily  as  other  kinds  do  on  land  and  in  the  air. 

From  every  part  of  the  civilized  world,  from  Mexico,  Central  and  South 
America  and  Europe,  orders  for  fireworks  come  in  increasing  numbers  to  American 
firms,  who  now  lead  the  world  in  this  art.  The  Philippines  will  soon  be  a  customer 
for  them,  and  with  the  general  opening  up  of  China  to  modern  civilization,  from 
causes  now  in  operation,  it  will  not  be  strange  if  some  day  we  should  supply  fireworks 
to  the  land  of  their  origin. 


What  Makes  a  Chimney  Smoke? 

Smoky  chimneys  are  usually  caused  either  by  the  presence  of  other  buildings 
obstructing  the  wind  and  giving  rise  to  irregular  currents  of  air,  or  by  improper 
construction  of  the  fireplace  and  adjacent  parts  of  the  chimney. 

The  first  may  generally  be  cured  by  fixing  a  chimney-pot  of  a  particular  con- 
struction, or  a  revolving  cowl,  on  the  chimney  top,  in  order  to  prevent  the  wind 
blowing  down;  in  the  second  case  the  narrowing  of  the  chimney  throat  will  generally 
create  a  better  draft. 

The  longer  a  chimney  is,  the  more  perfect  is  its  draft,  provided  the  fire  is 
great  enough  to  heat  the  column  of  air  in  it,  because  the  tendency  of  the  smoke  to 
draw  upwards  is  in  proportion  to  the  difference  of  weight  between  the  heated  air  in  a 
chimney  and  an  equal  column  of  external  air. 

The  first  we  hear  of  chimneys,  for  the  escape  of  the  smoke  from  a  fire  or  furnace, 
is  in  the  middle  ages, 


WHAT  ARE  DRY  DOCKS  LIKE 


159 


160 


WHAT  ARE  DRY  DOCKS  LIKE 


WHAT  ARE  DRY  DOCKS  LIKE 161 

What  are  Dry  Docks  Like? 

Although  divers  are  able  to  go  down  under  the  water  to  examine  the  bottom 
of  a  ship  while  it  is  afloat,  it  is  usually  necessary  to  have  it  up  on  dry  land  when 
thorough  inspections  or  repairs  have  to  be  made.  So  a  berth  something  like  a  huge 
box  stall  in  a  stable  is  built,  with  the  part  where  a  horse  would  stand  in  the  stall  full 
of  water,  and  a  door,  either  made  like  swinging  gates  opening  in  the  middle,  or  a 
caisson  which  is  operated  up  and  down  like  a  window,  at  the  end.  The  ship  is 
floated  into  the  dock  and  then  after  the  door  is  shut  to  prevent  any  more  coming 
in,  all  of  the  water  is  pumped  out  until  the  vessel  rests  on  a  lot  of  great  big  wooden 
blocks  and  supporting  props  with  which  the  bottom  and  sides  of  the  dock  are  lined. 
Supports  are  also  placed  between  the  vessel  and  each  side  of  the  dock.  Then,  when 
the  work  has  been  finished,  and  the  ship  is  ready  to  go  to  sea,  water  is  let  back  either 
by  pumping  it  in  or  else  by  gradually  opening  the  door  at  the  end,  and  the  vessel 
is  able  to  float  out  into  the  river  or  harbor  again. 

Although  all  of  the  navy  yards  and  some  private  corporations  in  this  country 
have  docks  of  this  kind,  they  are  not  of  as  much  importance  here  as  in  England, 
where  they  are  used,  without  pumping  put  the  water,  for  the  loading  and  unloading 
of  vessels,  because  of  the  very  great  rise  and  fall  of  the  tides  there  straining  and 
otherwise  damaging  ships  tied  up  to  ordinary  docks. 

There  are  nine  important  navy  yards  in  the  United  States,  located  at  Brooklyn, 
N.  Y.;  Boston,  Mass.;  Portsmouth,  N.  H.;  Philadelphia,  Pa.;  Portsmouth.  Va.; 
Mare  Island,  Cal.;  New  London,  Conn.;  Pensacola,  Fla.;  Washington,  D.  C., 
and  Port  Orchard,  Wash. 

There  is  another  kind  of  dry  dock,  called  "floating  docks/'  which  float  on  the 
surface  of  the  water  and  may  be  sunk  sufficiently  to  allow  of  a  vessel  being  floated 
into  them,  and  then  raised  again  by  pumping  the  water  out  of  the  tanks  around  the 
sides.  They  are  usually  built  of  iron,  with  water-tight  compartments,  and  not 
closed  in  at  either  end.  They  are  sunk  to  the  required  depth  by  the  admission  of 
water  into  so  many  of  the  compartments,  till  the  vessel  to  be  docked  can  float  easily 
above  the  bottom  of  the  dock,  and  then  they  are  raised  by  pumping  out  the  water 
until  the  ship  can  be  propped  up  as  in  the  land  dry  dock. 

Why  does  a  Lightning  Bug  Light  Her  Light? 

The  lightning  bugs  or  fireflies  which  are  seen  so  often  on  summer  evenings  in 
the  country  and  among  the  trees  in  the  parks  of  the  city,  are  similar  to  the  species 
of  beetle  called  the  glowworm  in  Great  Britain,  although  the  glowworm  there  does 
not  give  as  much  light  as  the  firefly  in  America. 

In  reality  it  is  only  the  female  which  is  the  lightning  bug,  for  the  male  is  not 
equipped  with  any  lighting  power.  He  has  the  bad  habit  of  going  out  nights,  and 
so  the  female  has  had  to  make  use  of  her  ability  to  make  part  of  her  body  shine  with 
a  sort  of  a  phosphorus  green  light  .in  order  to  show  him  the  way  home,  very  much 
as  a  dweller  in  a  poorly-lighted  street  keeps  a  light  in  the  window  or  on  the  porch 
to  guide  visitors  or  the  late  home-comer  to  the  proper  house.  She  seems  to  possess 
the  power  of  moderating  or  increasing  the  light  at  will. 

The  most  brilliant  fireflies  are  found  only  in  the  warmer  regions  of  the  world. 
The  ordinary  firefly  to  which  we  are  accustomed  gives  off  a  very  much  brighter  light 
if  placed  in  warm  water.  Fine  print  may  be  read  by  the  light  of  one  kind  which  is 
found  in  the  West  Indies;  in  Cuba  the  ladies  have  a  fashion  of  imprisoning  them  in 
bits  of  netting  or  lace  of  a  fine  texture  and  wearing  them  as  dress  ornaments,  and 
in  Hayti  they  are  used  to  give  light  for  domestic  purposes,  eight  or  ten  confined  in 
a  vial  emitting  sufficient  light  to  enable  a  person  to  write, 

a 


The  Story  in  the  Making  of  a  Picture* 

Let  us  suppose,  for  the  purposes  of  explanation,  that  as  far  as  seeing  goes,  any 
object  is  made  up  of  countless  infinitesimal  points  of  light,  and  that  the  business 
of  the  eye  is  to  gather  them  in  and  spread  them  out  at  the  back  of  the  eye  in  exactly 
the  same  relation  they  bore  to  each  other  on  the  object.  The  points  of  light,  so 
duplicated,  would  thus  form  the  image  of  the  object. 

The  camera  works  very  much  the  same  way.  The  lens  at  the  front  of  the 
camera  is  the  eye,  and  the  plate  or  film  at  the  back  of  the  camera  corresponds  to 
che  back  of  the  eye.  The  lens  collects  all  the  points  of  light  of  the  object  we  wish 
to  photograph,  and  directs  them  to  the  plate  or  film  in  such  fashion  that  they  occupy 
exactly  the  same  relative  position  that  they  did  before.  An  image  of  the  object  is 
formed. 

Now  if  we  could  look  inside  the  camera  and  the  image  were  visible,  we  would 
see  that  it  was  upside  down.  The  reason  for  this  is  very  simple,  as  the  accompanying 

diagram  shows.  The  ray  of  light  from 
"A"  at  the  bottom  of  the  object  passes 
through  the  lens  at  an  angle,  and  con- 
tinues in  a  straight  line  until  interrupted 
by  the  film  or  plate.  It  started  at  the 
bottom  of  the  object  and  ended  at  the 
top  of  the  image.  The  position  of  all  the 
points  of  light  is  just  reversed,  although 
their  relative  position  remains  the  same. 
"Then  here,"  you  say,  "is  where 
SHOWING  INVERSION  OF  THE  IMAGE  your  analogy  between  the  camera  and 

the  eye  falls  down." 

Not  at  all.  It  is  true  that  we  do  not  see  things  upside  down,  but  this  is  because 
of  mental  readjustment  during  the  passage  of  the  impressions  from  the  eye  to  the 
brain. 

Now  let  us  suppose  that  we  have  pur  camera  loaded  with  film,  and  that  mother 
has  succeeded  in  keeping  the  baby  quiet  long  enough  for  us  to  uncover  the  lens  for 
an  instant  and  let  the  points  of  light  through  to  the  film.  The  next  question  is, 
how  are  we  going  to  make  the  resulting  image  permanent.  We  know  that  it  is  there, 
but  in  its  present  state  it  is  not  going  to  do  us  a  great  deal  of  good.  In  fact,  if  we 
should  peek  in  the  back  of  the  camera,  and  to  do  so  would  ruin  the  exposure,  we 
could  not  even  see  it. 

But  let  us  go  back  a  bit.  We  ought  to  know  a  little  something  about  the  compo- 
sition of  this  film  on  which  the  image  has  been  projected. 

In  brief,  film  is  a  cellulose  base  coated  with  silver  bromide  and  gelatine.  If 
we  were  using  a  plate  the  only  difference  would  be  that  instead  of  cellulose  as  a  base 
we  would  have  a  sheet  of  glass.  The  gelatine  is  there  to  afford  lodgment  to  this 
sensitized  silver.  The  silver,  being  sensitive  to  the  action  of  light,  is  there  to  record 
the  image.  As  soon  as  one  of  these  silver  particles  has  been  touched  by  light,  it 
becomes  imbued  with  the  power  of  holding  whatever  the  lens  has  transmitted  to  it. 
The  image  was  formed,  we  remember,  by  points  of  light  grouped  in  the  same  relative 
positions  as  the  points  of  light  of  the  object  we  were  photographing.  Consequently 

*  Illustrations  by  courtesy  of  Eastman  Kodak  Company. 

tltt) 


THE  STORY  IN  THE  MAKING  OF  A  PICTURE      163 

it  is  only  those  silver  particles  within  the  image-forming  area  that  are  affected,  because 
that  is  where  the  light  struck. 

The  lens,  then,  gathered  in  the  points  of  light  and  dispersed  them  on  the  film 
so  as  to  form  an  image.  The  silver  particles  held  this  image,  but  not  visibly — it  is 
a  latent  image,  and  it  is  the  purpose  of  development  to  bring  it  out. 

It  ie  the  particular  business  of  a  chemical  called  "pyro"  to  release  this  latent 
image.  When  attacked  by  pyro,  those  silver  bromide  particles  which  have  been 
affected  by  light — and  only  those — change  to  black  metallic  silver.  After  all  the 
silver  bromide  particles,  the  ones  that  held  the  image,  have  been  transformed  into 
metallic  silver,  another  chemical  called  "hypo"  effectively  disposes  of  all  the  silver 
bromide  that  was  not  affected  by  light.  Now  only  the  image-forming  silver  bromide 
particles  remain,  and  these  have  been  transformed  to  metallic  silver.  The  result 
is  a  permanent  image — a  negative. 

But  it  is  a  negative,  so  called  because  everything  in  it  is  reversed — not  only 
from  left  to  right,  but  in  the  details  of  the  image.  Mother's  dark  blue  gown  looks 
light,  for  example,  and  baby's  white  dress,  dark. 

To  get  our  picture  as  it  should  be,  we  must  place  the  negative  in  contact  with  a 
sheet  of  paper  coated  with  a  gelatine  containing  silver.  This  emulsion,  as  the  coating 
is  called,  is,  as  we  might  readily  infer  from  the  presence  of  the  silver,  sensitive  to 
the  action  of  light  in  much  the  same  manner  as  was  the  original  film.  We  place  the 
negative  and  paper  in  contact,  then,  in  what  is  called  a  printing  frame,  so  that  light 
may  shine  through  the  negative  and  impress  the  image  on  the  sensitive  paper.  It 
is  obvious  that  the  light  parts  of  the  negative  will  let  through  the  most  light,  and 
that  consequently  the  silver  emulsion  on  the  paper  underneath  will  be  most  blackened, 
while  the  dark  parts  will  hold  back  the  light  and  the  emulsion  on  the  paper  under- 
neath will  be  less  affected.  In  other  words,  the  very  faults  that  we  noted  in  the 
negative,  from  a  picture  point  of  view,  automatically  right  themselves.  Mother's 
dress  looks  dark  and  baby's  dress  white — just  as  the  lens  saw  it. 

We  then  have  the  picture  in  its  finished  form. 

The  story  of  the  making  of  the  camera  is  as  interesting  as  that  of  the  making 
of  the  pictures  by  the  camera. 

Back  in  1732,  J.  H.  Schulze  discovered  that  chloride  of  silver  was  darkened 
by  light  and  all  unwittingly  became  the  father  of  photography.  In  1737,  Hellot, 
of  Paris,  stumbled  on  the  fact  that  characters  written  with  a  pen  dipped  in  a  solu- 
tion of  silver  nitrate  would  be  invisible,  until  exposure  to  light,  when  they  would 
blacken  and  become  perfectly  legible.  However,  it  was  not  until  early  in  the 
nineteenth  century  that  these  two  discoveries  were  put  to  any  practical  use,  as  far 
as  photography  was  concerned. 

People  of  an  artistic  turn  of  mind  had  been  in  the  habit  of  making  what  were 
called  "silhouettes."  The  sitter  was  so  posed  that  the  light  from  a  lamp  threw 
the  profile  of  his  face  in  sharp  shadow  against  a  white  screen.  It  was  then  easy 
enough  to  obtain  a  fairly  accurate  silhouette,  by  either  outlining  the  profile  or  cutting 
it  out  from  the  screen. 

It  occurred  to  a  man  by  the  name  of  Wedgwood  that  this  profile  might  be 
printed  on  the  screen  by  using  paper  treated  with  silver  nitrate,  and  he  not  only 
succeeded  in  accomplishing  this,  but  also  in  perfecting  what  was  then  called  tha 
"camera  obscura,"  the  forerunner  of  the  kodak  of  today.  The  camera  obscura 
consisted  of  a  box  with  a  lens  at  one  end  and  a  ground  glass  at  the  other,  just  like  a 
modern  camera.  It  was  used  by  artists  who  found  that  by  observing  the  picture 
on  the  ground  glass  they  could  draw  it  more  easily.  Wedgwood  tried  to  make 
pictures  by  substituting  his  prepared  paper  for  the  ground  glass,  but  the  paper  was 
too  insensitive  to  obtain  any  result.  Sir  Humphrey  Davy,  continuing  Wedgwood's 
experiments,  and  using  chloride  of  silver  instead  of  nitrate,  succeeded  in  making 


164      THE  STORY  IN  THE  MAKING  OF  A  PICTURE 


ARTOTYPE  COPY  OF  THE  EARLIEST  SUN- 
LIGHT PICTURE  OF  A  HUMAN  FACE 

Miss  Dorothy  Catherine  Draper,  taken 
by  her  brother,  Prof.  John  W.  Draper, 
M.D.,  LL.D.,  in  1840. 

powdered,  to  facilitate  the  exposure.  An 
exposure  today  with  a  modern  camera, 
under  similar  conditions,  could  be  made 
in  1/1000  of  a  second. 

It  was  impossible,  of  course,  to  find 
many  sitters  as  patient  as  Miss  Draper — 
try  keeping  perfectly  quiet  for  even  a 
minute  if  you  would  know  why  Miss 
Draper  should  be  ranked  as  a  phono- 
graphic martyr — and  many  experiments 
were  made  in  an  attempt  to  materially 
shorten  the  time  of  exposure.  The  only 
real  solution,  of  course,  was  to  find  some 
method  where  the  light  had  to  do  only  a 
little  of  the  work,  leaving  the  production 
of  the  image  itself  to  chemical  action. 

The  first  great  step  in  this  direction 
was  taken  by  Fox  Talbot  in  1841.  He 
found,  that  if  he  prepared  a  sheet  of 
paper  with  silver  iodide  and  exposed  it  in 
the  camera,  he  got  only  a  very  faint 
image,  but  if,  after  exposure,  he  washed 
over  the  paper  with  a  solution  of  silver 
nitrate  and  gallic  acid,  the  faint  image 
was  built  up  into  a  strong  picture.  And 
not  only  was  Fox  Talbot  the  first  to 


photographs  through  a  microscope,  by 
using  sunlight.  These  were  the  first  pic- 
tures made  by  means  of  a  lens  on  a  photo- 
graphic material.  But  none  of  these 
pictures  were  permanent,  and  it  was  not 
until  1839  that  Sir  John  Herschel  found 
that  "hypo,"  which  he  had  himself  dis- 
covered in  1819,  would  enable  him  to 
"fix"  the  picture  and  make  it  permanent. 
At  about  this  time,  Daguerre  an- 
nounced discoveries  that  gave  photog- 
raphy at  least  a  momentary  impetus,  but 
the  Daguerre  process  did  not  long  survive, 
as  it  was  slow,  costly  and  troublesome. 
The  daguerreotype  was  made  on  a  thin 
sheet  of  copper,  silver  plated  on  one  side, 
polished  to  a  high  degree  of  brilliancy,  and 
made  sensitive  by  exposing  it  to  the  fumes 
of  iodine.  The  first  daguerreotype  made 
in  America,  that  of  Miss  Catherine  Draper, 
was  exposed  for  six  minutes  in  strong  sun- 
light, and  the  face  of  the  sitter  thickly 


OLD-FASHIONED  PHOTOGRAPHIC 
EQUIPMENT 


THE  STORY  IN  THE  MAKING  OF  A  PICTURE      165 

develop  a  faint  or  invisible  image;  he  was  also  the  first  to  make  a  negative  and  use 
it  for  printing. 

In  spite  of  all  these  advances,  photography  was  almost  exclusively  a  studio 


THE  FIRST  KODAK  (1888),  SHOWING 
ROLL  HOLDER  AND  ROLL  FILM  FOR  100 
EXPOSURES 


THE  FIRST  DAYLIGHT  LOADING  METHOD 


THE  FIRST  "FOLDING  KODAK"  FITTED 
FOR  PLATES  OR  ROLL  FILM 


"DOPE"  BARREL 


proposition,  when,  in  1880,  experiments  were  begun  which  were  to  result  in  photography 
that  could  be  universally  enjoyed — photography  as  we  know  it  today.  Of  course 
there  were  amateurs  even  in  those  early  photographic  days,  but  they  were  few  and 
far  between.  There  was  something  about  the  bulk  and  weight  of  the  old-time 
photographic  outfit  that  failed  to  beget  general  enthusiasm. 


166      THE  STORY  IN  THE  MAKING  OF  A  PICTURE 


HAW  STOCK  ROLLS,  KODAK  PABK 


THE  STORY  IN  THE  MAKING  OF  A  PICTURE 


167 


168      THE  STORY  IN  THE  MAKING  OF  A  PICTURE 

To  lighten  the  camera  burden,  and  to  simplify  the  various  photographic  pro- 
cesses, were  the  problems  that  confronted  the  American  inventor.  The  first  step 
toward  film  photography — and  it  was  film  photography  that  relegated  camera  bulk 
to  the  scrap  heap — was  a  roll  film  made  of  coated  paper  to  which  a  sensitive  emulsion 
was  applied,  but  the  real  goal  was  reached  when  cellulose  was  substituted  as  a  film 
base.  This  made  practicable  the  present  flexible,  transparent  film  with  its  attendant 
convenience  and  dependability. 

The  kodak  was  the  natural  outcome  of  the  roll  film  system.  The  first  one 
appeared  in  1888,  and  its  development,  which  proceeded  simultaneously  with  the 
film  discoveries,  soon  reached  the  point  where  the  loading  and  unloading  could  be 
done  in  daylight.  Daylight  developing  soon  followed,  and  the  dark  room,  as  far 
as  the  kodaker  was  concerned,  took  its  proper  place  as  a  relic  of  the  dark  ages. 

With  1914  came  autographic  photography,  so  that  now  with  a  kodak  in  one 
pocket  and  a  handful  of  film  in  the  other,  the  amateur  is  equipped  for  a  picture- 
making  tour  of  the  world — not  simply  a  pictorial  record,  but  a  written  record  as 
well,  for  autographic  photography  permits  the  dating  and  titling  of  each  negative 
directly  after  exposure. 

Photography,  not  so  many  years  ago  an  exclusive  pleasure  for  the  few,  is  now 
easy  fun  for  millions. 


FILTER  ROOM,  KODAK  PARK 
Cellulose  Acetate  Manufacturing 


WHY  DO  WE  CALL  THEM  X-RAYS 169 

How  Deep  is  the  Deepest  Part  of  the  Ocean? 

Man  has  not  been  able  to  tell  definitely  just  what  the  greatest  depth  of  the 
ocean  is,  because  it  would  be  a  practically  unending  task  to  go  over  every  bit  of  it 
to  take  measurements.  A  great  many  exploring  expeditions  have  been  sent  out 
to  determine  that  interesting  information  so  far  as  possible,  however,  and  one  of 
these,  the  Murray-Challenger  expedition,  has  reported  that  the  greatest  depth 
that  could  be  found  in  the  Atlantic  Ocean  is  27,366  feet,  in  the  Pacific  Ocean  30,000 
feet,  in  the  Indian  Ocean  18,582  feet,  in  the  Southern  Ocean  25,200  feet  and  in  the 
Arctic  Ocean  9,000  feet.  They  also  stated  that  the  Atlantic  Ocean  has  an  area  in 
square  miles,  of  24,536,000;  the  Pacific  Ocean,  50,309,000;  the  Indian  Ocean, 
17,084,000;  the  Southern  Ocean,  30,592,000  and  the  Arctic  Ocean,  4,781,000. 

Why  do  We  Say  "  Get  the  Sack  "? 

The  use  of  the  expression  "get  the  sack,"  when  we  mean  "to  be  discharged, " 
originated  through  the  impression  made  upon  people  in  this  country  when  stories 
were  brought  to  them  of  the  way  the  Sultan  of  Turkey  disposed  of  members  of  his 
harem  of  whom  he  had  tired.  When  he  wanted  to  get  rid  of  one  of  his  harem  he 
was  said  to  have  had  her  put  into  a  sack  and  thrown  into  the  Bosporus.  People 
who  heard  of  this  report  repeated  it  to  others  and  they  became  so  used  to  telling 
the  tale  that  they  slipped  quite  naturally  into  the  habit  of  saying  "to  get  the  sack" 
when  they  meant  that  they  expected  to  be  put  out  of  a  position  suddenly. 

In  very  much  the  same  way  the  phrase  "Hobson's  choice"  is  supposed  to  have 
resulted  from  the  story  told  here  of  a  livery-stable  keeper  at  Cambridge,  England, 
called  Hobson,  who  obliged  each  customer  to  take  the  horse  nearest  the  stable  door, 
when  a  wish  to  hire  one  was  expressed,  even  though  he  might  permit  customers  to 
make  the  rounds  of  all  the  stalls,  examining  and  perhaps  selecting  other  horses. 
Since  the  interest  inspired  by  that  report,  "Hobson's  choice"  has  come  to  mean  a 
choice  without  any  alternative,  or  the  chance  to  take  the  thing  which  is  offered  or 
nothing. 

Why  do  We  Call  Them  X-Rays? 

At  the  time  the  discovery  of  X-rays  was  announced  by  Prof.  Wilhelm  Conrad 
Rontgen  of  the  University  of  Wiirzburg,  Germany,  he  was  not  sure  of  their  exact 
nature,  and  so  he  named  them  "X-Rays,"  because  "X"  has  always  been  understood 
to  be  the  symbol  for  an  "unknown  quantity." 

They  are  invisible  rays  transmitted  through  the  air  in  a  manner  similar  to  light. 
They  are  produced  by  passing  unidirectional  electric  current  of  from  twenty  to  one 
hundred  thousand  volts  pressure  through  a  specially  constructed  high  vacuum  tube, 
within  which  rays  radiating  from  the  surface  of  a  concave  cathode  (the  negative 
electrode  of  a  galvanic  battery) ,  are  focused  upon  and  bombard  a  target  of  refractory 
material  such  as  tungsten,  iridium,  platinum,  from  which  focus  spot  the  X-rays 
radiate  in  all  directions. 

They  are  used  in  medicine  and  surgery,  to  photograph  the  skeleton  and  all 
the  internal  organs  of  the  human  body,  as  an  aid  in  diagnosis;  also  to  destroy 
diseased  tissue  without  the  aid  of  surgery.  Cancers  and  tumors  of  certain  kinds 
and  a  number  of  skin  diseases  are  said  to  be  made  to  disappear  by  their  use.  When 
the  apparatus  is  used,  the  subject  is  placed  on  a  long  table  and  the  X-ray  tube,  in  its 
lead  glass  shield  container,  is  brought  over  the  part  of  the  body  to  which  the  rays 
are  to  be  applied. 

The  most  up-to-date  apparatus  consists  of  a  high-tension  transformer  and 
rectifier,  driven  by  a  rotary  converter,  which  derives  power  from  direct-current 
electric  service  and  delivers  alternating  current  to  the  high-tension  transformer. 


170 


WHY  DO  WE  CALL  THEM  X-RAYS 


WHEN  DOES  A  TORTOISE  MOVE  QUICKLY         171 

How  did  the  Term  "  Yankee  "  Originate? 

Although  some  people  maintain  that  the  word  "Yankee"  originated  with  the 
way  white  men  interpreted  the  Indians'  name  for  the  early  settlers,  most  of  those 
who  have  wondered  about  it  have  decided  that  it  came  to  be  used  as  a  nickname 
for  persons  born  in  the  United  States,  because  of  a  farmer,  named  Jonathan  Hastings 
and  living  in  Cambridge,  Massachusetts,  in  the  eighteenth  century,  using  it  to 
describe  some  good,  home-made  cider  of  his  making,  as  "Yankee  cider."  The  word 
was  taken  up  by  the  students  of  Harvard  University,  and  gradually  spread  throughout 
the  whole  country. 

Why  do  We  Say  "  Kick  the  Bucket "? 

A  great  many  years  ago  a  man  called  Bolsover  became  crazed  by  some  unhappy 
experiences  and  decided  to  kill  himself  by  fastening  a  rope  around  his  neck  and 
hanging  from  a  cross-beam  overhead.  In  selecting  a  place  to  tie  the  rope  high  enough 
to  accomplish  his  purpose  he  found  that  he  would  have  to  stand  on  something  in 
order  to  reach  it,  and  so  he  reached  for  the  nearest  thing,  which  happened  to  be  a 
bucket;  after  the  rope  was  firmly  adjusted  he  kicked  the  bucket  out  from  under 
his  feet  and  his  full  weight  hung  suspended  from  the  rope  about  his  neck.  The 
publicity  given  his  act  resulted  in  the  adoption  of  the  phrase  "to  kick  the  bucket" 
as  meaning  "to  die,"  and  that  is  the  explanation  which  most  people  who  have  tried 
to  look  up  the  origination  of  the  term  give  as  its  first  use. 

When  does  a  Tortoise  Move  Quickly? 

Tortoises  lay  their  eggs  in  underground  nests,  where  they  remain  for  almost  a 
year,  and,  strange  to  say,  they  have  a  very  curious  way  of  drilling  holes  for  these 
nests  with  their  tails.  A  tortoise  picks  a  spot  where  the  earth  is  bare,  and  then 
stiffens  its  tail  by  contracting  the  muscles  strongly,  placing  the  tip  firmly  against 
the  ground  and  boring  a  hole  by  moving  it  round  and  round  in  a  circle,  until  a  cone- 
shaped  cavity  is  produced,  wide  at  the  top  but  tapering  to  a  point  below.  When 
this  operation  is  completed,  it  immediately  sets  to  work  to  enlarge  the  hole  with  the 
help  of  its  hind  legs.  It  does  this  by  scooping  out  "shovelfuls"  of  dirt,  first  with  one 
of  its  hind  feet  and  then  with  the  other,  and  heaping  it  up  like  the  wall  of  a  fortress 
around  the  pit.  Tortoises  use  their  feet  like  hands  when  they  do  this,  very  carefully 
placing  the  dirt  in  a  circle  at  some  little  distance  from  the  edge  of  the  cavity,  and 
the  work  is  continued  until  the  hole  is  dug  down  as  deep  as  the  hind  legs  will  reach. 
When  it  finds  that  no  more  soil  can  be  removed,  that  is,  at  the  end  of  an  hour  or  more 
of  steady  digging,  the  tortoise  accepts  the  job  as  completed  and  proceeds  to  deposit 
its  eggs  inside  very  carefully,  just  as  you  would  put  hen's  eggs  into  a  basket.  While 
all  this  is  going  on  the  body  is  scarcely  moved  and  the  head  is  kept  inside  the  shell. 

There  are  usually  nine  eggs  and  they  just  about  fill  the  bottom  of  the  nest,  which 
measures  approximately  five  inches  across  and  is  itself  shaped  more  or  less  like  an 
egg,  being  wider  inside  than  at  the  top.  After  about  half  an  hour's  rest,  the  hardest 
part  of  the  work  is  begun — that  of  filling  up  the  hole  and  leveling  the  ground.  The 
dirt  is  placed  carefully  over  the  eggs,  a  "handful"  at  a  time,  the  hind  legs  being  used 
alternately  again  for  that  purpose.  As  the  cavity  is  gradually  filled  up  the  tortoise 
presses  the  earth  down  with  the  outer  edge  of  its  foot.  It  takes  another  half  hour's 
rest  after  all  the  dirt  has  been  carried  back  again,  and  then  commences  the  part  of 
the  operation  where  the  tortoise  moves  quickly  enough  to  merit  another  racing  title. 
It  beats  down  the  dirt-mound  and  stamps  it  firm  and  flat  with  the  under  side  of  its 
hard  shell,  raising  the  hind  end  of  its  body  and  then  hurriedly  letting  it  drop  to  the 
ground  again,  turning  round  and  round  in  a  circle  very  briskly  in  the  meantime, 
at  the  same  time  doing  all  it  can  to  remove  any  traces  which  might  lead  to  the 
discovery  of  its  nest. 


The  Story  in  a  Newspaper 


Among  the  marvels  of  machinery  of  the  present  day  there  are  none  more  com- 
plicated and  bewildering  in  appearance  than  that  by  which  the  news  of  the  world 
is  sent  adrift  within  the  daily  newspaper  and  none  more  marvelously  effective  in 
its  operation.  If  we  go  back  to  the  days  when  the  seeds  of  the  modern  press  were 
planted,  we  find  them  in  the  hand-printing  done  by  the  Chinese  with  their  engraved 

blocks,  and  with  the  sim- 
ple press  used  by  Guten- 
berg about  1450,  when  he 
printed  the  first  book  from 
movable  types. 

His  press  consisted  of 
two  upright  timbers  held 
together  by  cross  pieces  at 
top  and  bottom.  The  flat 
bed  on  which  the  types 
rested  was  held  up  by 
other  cross  timbers,  while 
through  another  passed  a 
wooden  screw,  by  the  aid 
of  which  the  wooden 
"platen"  was  forced  down 
upon  the  types.  The 
"form"  of  type  was  inked 
by  a  ball  of  leather  stuffed 
with  wool,  the  printer  then 
spread  the  paper  over  it, 
laying  a  piece  of  blanket 
upon  the  paper  to  soften 
the  impression,  after  which 
the  screw  forced  the  platen 
down  on  the  paper  and 
this  on  the  type.  This 
press  was  not  original, 
since  similar  cheese  and 
linen  presses  were  then  in 
use. 

For  150  years  this  crude  method  of  printing  continued  in  operation,  the  first 
known  improvement  being  made  by  an  Amsterdam  printer  about  1620,  he  adding 
a  few  parts  to  render  the  work  more  effective.  Such  was  the  simple  press  still 
employed  when  Benjamin  Franklin  began  his  work  as  a  printer  a  century  later.  In 
1798  the  Earl  of  Stanhope  had  a  cast-iron  frame  made  to  replace  the  wooden  one 
and  added  levers  to  give  more  power  to  the  pressman.  Woodcuts  were  then  being 
printed  and  needed  a  stronger  press. 

We  must  go  on  with  the  old  Gutenberg  method  and  its  tardy  improvements, 
for  another  century,  or  until  about  1816,  when  George  Clymer,  a  printer  of  Phila- 


THE  BLAEW  PRESS,  1620 


*  Illustrations  by  courtesy  of  R.  Hoe  &  Co. 


(172) 


THE  STORY  IN  A  NEWSPAPER 


173 


delphia,  did  away  with  the  screw  and  employed  a  long  and  heavy  cast-iron  lever, 
by  the  aid  of  which  the  platen  was  forced  down  upon  the  type,  the  operation  being 
assisted  by  accompanying  devices. 

As  will  be  seen,  the  growth  of  improve- 
ments had  until  then  been  very  slow. 
From  this  time  forward  it  became  far  more 
rapid,  some  useful  addition  to  the  press 
being  made  at  frequent  intervals.  The 
"Washington"  press,  used  at  this  time  by 
R.  H.  Hoe  &  Co.,  of  New  York,  embodied 
these  improvements,  and  became  one  of  the 
best  hand-printing  presses  so  far  made. 
The  first  steam-power  press  was  introduced 
by  Daniel  Treadwell,  of  Boston,  in  1822, 
the  bed  and  platen,  or  its  successor,  the 
cylinder,  being  used  in  these  and  in  the 
improved  forms  that  followed  until  after 
the  middle  of  the  century. 

The  idea  of  replacing  the  platen  by  a 
cylinder  was  not  a  new  one.  It  was  employed 
in  printing  copper-plate  engravings  in  the 
fifteenth  century,  a  stationary  wooden 
roller  being  employed,  beneath  which  the 
bed,  with  its  form  and  paper,  was  moved 
backward  and  forward,  a  sheet  ^  being 
printed  at  each  movement.  With  this  idea 
began  a  new  era  in  the  evolution  of  the 

STANHOPE  PRESS,  1798 

printing  press.  A  vast  number  of 
patents  have  since  been  issued  for 
printing  machines  in  which  the  cylinder 
is  connected  with  the  bed  and  later 
for  the  operation  of  two  cylinders 
together,  one  holding  the  form  of  type 
and  the  other  making  the  impression. 
But  all  these  were  for  improvements, 
the  underlying  principle  remaining  the 
same.  The  conception  of  a  press  of 
this  character  in  which  the  paper  was 
to  be  fed  into  the  press  in  an  endless 
roll  or  "web"  goes  back  to  the  begin- 
ning of  the  nineteenth  century,  though 
it  was  not  made  available  until  a  later 
date. 

Meanwhile,  however,  patent  after 
patent  for  the  improvement  of  the 
cylinder  press  were  taken  out  and  the 
art  of  printing  improved  rapidly,  the 
firm  of  Hoe  &  Co.  being  one  of  the 
most  active  engaged  in  this  business,  the  United  States  continuing  in  advance  of 
Europe  in  the  development  of  the  art.  The  single  small  cylinder  and  double 
small  cylinder  introduced  by  this  firm  proved  highly  efficient,  the  output  of  the 


CLYMER'S  COLUMBIAN  PRESS,  1816 


174 


THE  STORY   IN   A  NEWSPAPER 


former  reaching  2,000  impressions  per  hour,  while  the  double  type,  used  where  more 
rapid  work  was  needed,  yielded  4,000  per  hour. 

But  the  demands  of  the  newspaper  world  steadily  grew  and  in  1846  a  press  known 

as  the  Hoe  Type  Revolving 
Machine  was  completed  and  placed 
in  the  office  of  the  Public  Ledger, 
of  Philadelphia.  By  increasing 
the  number  of  cylinders  the  pro- 
duct was  rapidly  added  to,  each 
cylinder  printing  on  one  side  2,000 
sheets  per  hour. 

In  1835  Sir  Rowland  Hill  sug- 
gested that  a  machine  might  be 
made  that  would  print  both  sides 
of  the  sheet  from  a  roll  of  paper 
in  one  operation.  A  similar  double 
process  had  been  performed  for 
many  years  in  the  printing  of 
cotton  cloth.  This  remained, 
however,  a  mere  suggestion  until 
many  years  later,  and  the  one- 
side  printing  continued.  But,  by 
adding  to  the  number  of  cylinders, 
a  speed  of  20,000  papers  thus 
printed  was  in  time  reached. 

To  prevent  the  possible  fall 
of  types  from  a  horizontal  cylin- 
der, the  vertical  cylinder  was  introduced  by  the  London  Times,  but  this  danger  was 
overcome  in  the  Hoe  presses,  and  by  the  subsequent  invention  of  casting  stereotype 


PETER  SMITH  HAND  PRESS,  1822 


TREADWELL'S  WOODEN-FRAME  BED  AND  PIATEN  POWER  PRESS,  1822 


THE  STORY  IN  A  NEWSPAPER 


175 


plates  in  a  curve  the  final  stage  of  perfection  in  design  was  reached.  In  1865 
William  Bullock,  of  Philadelphia,  constructed  the  first  printing  press  capable  of 
printing  from  a  web  or  continuous  roll  of  paper,  knives  being  added  to  cut  the 
sheets,  which  were  then  carried  through  the  press  by  tapes  or  fingers  and  delivered 
by  the  aid  of  metal  nippers.  There  were  difficulties  in  this  series  of  operations, 
but  these  were  overcome  in  the  later  Hoe  press,  in  which  the  sheets  were  merely 
perforated  by  the  cutter,  and  were  afterward  fully  separated  by  the  pull  of  accele- 
rating tapes. 

The  old-time  rag-paper  had  disappeared  for  newspaper  work,  being  superseded 
by  wood-pulp  paper,  the  cheapness  of  which  added  to  the  desire  to  produce  presses 
of  greater  speed  and  efficiency.    It 
was    also    desirable    that    papers 
should  be  delivered  folded  for  the 
carrier,  and  this  led  to  the  inven- 
tion of  folding  machines,  one  of 
the  earliest  of  which,  produced  in 
1875,  folded  15,000  per  hour. 

We  have  in  the  foregoing  pages 
told  the  main  story  of  the  evolution 
of  the  printing  press  from  the  crude 
machine  used  by  Gutenberg  in 
1450  to  the  rapid  cylinder  press  of 
four  centuries  later.  There  is 
little  more  to  be  said.  Later 
changes  were  largely  in  the  matter 
of  increase  of  activity,  by  dupli- 
cation and  superduplication  of 
presses  until  sextuple  and  octuple 
presses  were  produced,  and  by 
adding  to  the  rapidity  and  per- 
fection of  their  operation,  and  the 
extraordinary  ingenuity  and  quick- 
ness with  which  the  printed  sheets 
were  folded  and  made  ready  for 
the  convenience  of  the  reader. 
Sir  Rowland  Hill's  dream  of  a 
press  which  would  print  both  sides 
of  the  paper  at  one  operation  in 
due  time  became  a  realized  fact,  while  vast  improvements  in  the  matter  of  inking 
the  forms,  and  even  the  addition  of  colored  ink  by  which  printing  in  color  could 
be  done,  were  among  the  new  devices. 

What  we  have  further  to  say  is  a  question  of  progress  in  rapidity  of  action  rather 
than  of  invention.  The  20,000  papers  printed  per  hour,  above  stated,  has  since  been 
seen  passed  to  a  degree  that  seems  fairly  miraculous.  The  quadruple  press  of  1887 
turned  out  eight-page  papers  at  a  running  speed  of  18,000  per  hour,  these  being  cut, 
pasted  and  folded  ready  for  the  carrier  or  the  mails.  Four  years  later  came  the 
sextuple  press  (the  single  press  six  times  duplicated)  with  an  output  of  72,000  eight- 
page  papers  per  hour,  and  in  a  few  years  more  the  octuple  press,  its  output  96,000 
eight-page  papers  per  hour.  Larger  papers  were  of  course  smaller,  but  its  capacity 
for  a  twenty-page  paper  was  24,000  per  hour. 

As  may  well  be  conjectured,  the  twentieth  century  has  had  its  share  in  this 
career  of  progress,  the  perfected  press  of  1916  being  credited  with  the  astounding 
output  of  216,000  eight-page  papers  in  an  hour,  all  folded,  cut  and  counted  in  lots. 


WASHINGTON  HAND  PRESS,  1827 


176 


THE  STORY  IN  A  NEWSPAPER 


THE  STORY   IN  A  NEWSPAPER 


177 


178 


THE  STORY  IN  A  NEWSPAPER 


< 


SINGLE  SMALL  CYLINDER  PRESS,  1835-1900 


DOUBLE  CYLINDER  PRESS,  1835-1900 
These  presses  were  built  up  to  1900  and  this  picture  shows  the  latest  design  brought  out  about  1882. 


THE  STORY  IN  A  NEWSPAPER 


179 


DOUBLE  OCTUPLE  NEWSPAPER  WEB  PERFECTING  PRESS,  1903 


ELECTMC-HEA.TED  PNEUMATIC  MATRIX- 
DRYING  MACHINE,  1911 


180 THE  STORY  IN  A  NEWSPAPER 

Where  part  of  the  pages  are  printed  in  three  colors  this  press  has  still  a  running  speed 
of  72,000  per  hour.  This  machine  is  composed  of  27,100  separate  pieces,  it  being  47 
feet  long,  8  feet  wide  and  13  feet  high,  while  such  a  mighty  complication  of  whirling 
wheels  and  oscillating  parts  nowhere  else  exists. 

A  word  more  and  we  are  done.  To  feed  such  giant  presses  the  old  hand  method 
of  setting  and  distributing  type  has  grown  much  too  slow.  The  linotype  machine 
has  added  greatly  to  the  rapidity  of  this  centuries-old  process.  To  this  has  been 
added  the  later  monotype,  of  similar  rapidity,  while  type  distributing  has  become 
in  large  measure  obsolete,  the  types,  once  used,  going  to  the  melting  pot  instead 
of  to  the  fingers  of  the  distributors. 


What  do  We  Mean  by  the  "  Flying  Dutchman  "? 

The  Flying  Dutchman  is  a  phantom  ship  said  to  be  seen  in  stormy  weather  off 
the  Cape  of  Good  Hope,  and  thought  to  forbode  ill  luck.  One  form  of  the  legend 
has  it  that  the  ship  is  doomed  never  to  enter  a  port  on  account  of  a  horrible  murder 
committed  on  board;  another,  that  the  captain,  a  Dutchman,  swore  a  profane  oath 
that  he  would  weather  the  Cape  though  he  should  beat  there  till  the  last  day.  He 
was  taken  at  his  word,  and  there  he  still  beats,  but  never  succeeds  in  rounding  the 
point.  He  sometimes  hails  vessels  and  requests  them  to  take  letters  home  from  him. 
The  legend  is  supposed  to  have  originated  in  the  sight  of  some  ship  reflected  from  the 
clouds.  It  has  been  made  the  ground-work  of  one  or  two  novels  and  an  opera  by 
Wagner. 

Why  does  a  Duck's  Back  Shed  Water? 

Nature  has  provided  the  duck  with  a  protection  against  water  just  as  she  has 
so  wisely  protected  all  animals  against  such  elements  as  they  have  to  live  in. 

The  feathers  on  a  duck  are  very  heavy  and  close  together,  and  at  the  bottom  of 
each  feather  is  a  little  oil  gland  that  supplies  a  certain  amount  of  oil  to  each  feather. 
This  oil  sheds  the  water  from  the  back  of  a  duck  as  soon  as  it  strikes  the  feathers. 

Canvasback  ducks  are  considered  the  finest  of  the  water-fowls  for  the  table. 
The  canvasback  duck  is  so  called  from  the  appearance  of  the  feathers  on  the  back. 
They  arrive  in  the  United  States  from  the  north  about  the  middle  of  October,  some- 
times assembling  in  immense  numbers.  The  waters  of  Chesapeake  Bay  are  a  favorite 
locality  for  them.  Here  the  wild  celery,  their  favorite  food,  is  abundant,  and  they 
escape  the  unpleasant  fishy  flavor  of  the  fish-eating  ducks. 

Why  doesn't  the  Sky  ever  Fall  Down? 

The  sky  never  falls  down  because  there  is  nothing  to  fall.  What  we  see  and  call 
the  sky  is  the  reflection  of  the  sun's  rays  on  the  belt  of  air  that  surrounds  the  earth. 
That  beautiful  blue  dome  that  we  sometimes  hear  spoken  of  as  the  roof  of  the  earth 
is  just  the  reflected  light  of  the  sun  on  the  air. 

The  atmosphere  of  the  earth  consists  of  a  mass  of  gas  extending  to  a  height 
which  has  been  variously  estimated  at  from  forty-five  to  several  hundred  miles, 
possibly  five  hundred,  and  bearing  on  every  part  of  the  earth's  surface  with  a  pressure 
of  about  fifteen  pounds  per  square  inch. 

How  are  Sand-Dunes  Formed? 

Sand-dunes  are  composed  of  drift  sand  thrown  up  by  the  waves  of  the  sea,  and 
blown,  when  dry,  to  some  distance  inland,  until  it  is  stopped  by  large  stones,  tree 
roots  or  other  obstacles.  It  gradually  accumulates  around  these,  until  the  heaps 
become  very  large,  often  forming  dunes  or  sand-hills.  * 


WHAT  DO  WE  MEAN  BY  AN  ECLIPSE 


181 


What  do  We  Mean  by  an  "  Eclipse  "? 

Any  good  dictionary  will  tell  us  that  an  eclipse  is  an  interception  or  obscuration 
of  the  light  of  the  sun,  moon  or  other  heavenly  body  by  the  intervention  of  another 
and  non-luminous  heavenly  body.  Stars  and  planets  may  suffer  eclipse,  but  the 
principal  eclipses  are  those  of  the  sun  and  the  moon. 

An  eclipse  of  the  moon  is  an  obscuration  of  the  light  of  the  moon  occasioned  by 
the  interposition  of  the  earth  between  the  sun  and  the  moon;  consequently  all  eclipses 
of  the  moon  happen  at  full  moon;  for  it  is  only  when  the  moon  is  on  that  side  of  the 
earth  which  is  turned  away  from  the  sun,  and  directly  opposite,  that  it  can  come 
within  the  earth's  shadow.  Further,  the  moon  must  at  that  time  be  in  the  same 
plane  as  the  earth's  shadow;  that  is,  the  plane  of  the  ecliptic  in  which  the  latter 
always  moves.  But  as  the  moon's  orbit  makes  an  angle  of  more  than  five  degrees 


DIAGRAMS  ILLUSTRATING  THE  THEORY  OF  ECLIPSES. 

with  the  plane  of  the  ecliptic,  it  frequently  happens  that  though  the  moon  is  in 
opposition  it  does  not  come  within  the  shadow  of  the  earth. 

The  theory  of  lunar  eclipses  will  be  understood  from  Fig.  1,  where  S  represents 
the  sun,  E  the  earth,  and  M  the  moon.  If  the  sun  were  a  point  of  light  there  would 
be  a  sharply  outlined  shadow  or  umbra  only,  but  since  the  luminous  surface  is  so 
large,  there  is  always  a  region  in  which  the  light  of  the  sun  is  only  partially  cut  off 
by  the  earth,  which  region  is  known  as  the  penumbra  (P  P).  Hence  during  a  lunar 
eclipse  the  moon  first  enters  the  penumbra,  then  is  totally  eclipsed  by  the  umbra, 
then  emerges  through  the  penumbra  again. 

An  eclipse  of  the  sun  is  an  occultation  of  the  whole  or  part  of  the  face  of  the 
sun  occasioned  by  an  interposition  of  the  moon  between  the  earth  and  the  sun;  thus 
all  eclipses  of  the  sun  happen  at  the  time  of  new  moon. 

Fig.  2  is  a  diagram  showing  the  principle  of  a  solar  eclipse.  The  dark  or  central 
part  of  the  moon's  shadow,  where  the  sun's  rays  are  wholly  intercepted,  is  here  the 
umbra,  and  the  light  part,  where  only  a  part  of  them  are  intercepted,  is  the  penumbra; 
and  it  is  evident  that  if  a  spectator  be  situated  on  that  part  of  the  earth  where  the 
umbra  falls  there  will  be  a  total  eclipse  of  the  sun  at  that  place;  in  the  penumbra 
there  will  be  a  partial  eclipse,  and  beyond  the  penumbra  there  will  be  no  eclipse. 

As  the  earth  is  not  always  at  the  same  distance  from  the  moon,  and  as  the  moon 


182 WHAT  DO  WE  MEAN  BY  AN  ECLIPSE 

is  a  comparatively  small  body,  if  an  eclipse  should  happen  when  the  earth  is  so  far 
from  the  moon  that  the  moon's  shadow  falls  short  of  the  earth,  a  spectator  situated 
on  the  earth  in  a  direct  line  between  the  centers  of  the  sun  and  moon  would  see  a  ring 
of  light  around  the  dark  body  of  the  moon;  such  an  eclipse  is  called  annular,  as 
shown  in  Fig.  3;  when  this  happens  there  can  be  no  total  eclipse  anywhere,  because 
the  moon's  umbra  does  not  reach  the  earth. 

An  eclipse  can  never  be  annular  longer  than  twelve  minutes  twenty-four 
seconds,  nor  total  longer  than  seven  minutes  fifty-eight  seconds;  nor  can  the  entire 
duration  of  an  eclipse  of  the  sun  ever  exceed  two  hours. 

An  eclipse  of  the  sun  begins  on  the  western  side  of  his  disc  and  ends  on  the 
eastern;  and  an  eclipse  of  the  moon  begins  on  the  eastern  side  of  her  disc  and  ends 
on  the  western. 

The  average  number  of  eclipses  in  a  year  is  four,  two  of  the  sun  and  two  of  the 
moon;  and  as  the  sun  and  moon  are  as  long  below  the  horizon  of  any  particular 
place  as  they  are  above  it,  the  average  number  of  risible  eclipses  in  a  year  is  two, 
one  of  the  sun  and  one  of  the  moon. 

What  are  Dreams? 

The  dictionary  tells  us  that  a  dream  is  a  train  of  vagrant  ideas  which  present 
themselves  to  the  mind  while  we  are  asleep. 

We  know  that  the  principal  feature,  when  we  are  dreaming,  is  the  absence  of  our 
control  over  the  current  of  thought,  so  that  the  principal  of  suggestion  has  an 
unlimited  sway.  There  is  usually  a  complete  want  of  coherency  in  the  images  that 
appear  in  dreams,  but  when  we  are  dreaming  this  does  not  seem  to  cause  any 
surprise. 

Occasionally,  however,  intellectual  efforts  are  made  during  sleep  which  would 
be  difficult  to  surpass  when  awake. 

It  is  said  that  Condillac  often  brought  to  a  conclusion  in  his  dreams,  reasonings 
on  which  he  had  been  employed  during  the  day;  and  that  Franklin  believed  that  he 
had  been  often  instructed  in  his  dreams  concerning  the  issue  of  events  which  at  that 
time  occupied  his  mind.  Coleridge  composed  from  two  to  three  hundred  lines  during 
a  dream;  the  beautiful  fragment  of  "Kubla  Khan,"  which  was  all  he  had  committed 
to  paper  when  he  awoke,  remaining  as  a  specimen  of  that  dream  poem. 

The  best  thought  points  to  the  fact  that  dreams  depend  on  natural  causes. 
They  generally  take  their  rise  and  character  from  internal  bodily  impressions  or  from 
something  in  the  preceding  state  of  body  or  mind.  They  are,  therefore,  retrospe  tive 
and  resultant,  instead  of  being  prospective  or  prophetic.  The  latter  opinion  has, 
however,  prevailed  in  all  ages  and  among  all  nations,  and  hence  the  common  practice 
of  divination  or  prophesying  by  dreams,  that  is,  interpreting  them  as  indications  of 
coming  events. 

What  Makes  Our  Teeth  Chatter? 

When  one  is  cold  there  is  apt  to  be  a  spasm  of  shivering  over  which  the  brain 
does  not  seem  to  have  any  control.  The  spasm  causes  the  muscles  of  the  jaw  to 
contract  very  quickly  and  as  soon  as  they  are  contracted,  they  let  the  jaw  fall  again 
of  its  own  weight.  This  occurring  many  times  in  rapid  succession  is  what  causes  the 
teeth  to  chatter. 

There  are  two  kinds  of  spasms,  "  clonic  "  and  "  tonic."  In  the  former,  the  muscles 
contract  and  relax  alternately  in  very  quick  succession,  producing  an  appearance  of 
agitation.  In  the  latter,  the  muscles  contract  in  a  steady  and  uniform  manner,  and 
remain  contracted  for  a  comparatively  long  time. 


The  Story  in  a  Honey -Comb* 


When  one  thinks  of  honey  one  instinctively  closes  the  eyes  and  a  mental  picture 
of  fruit  trees  laden  with  snowy  bloom,  of  beautiful  clover  fields,  of  green  forests  in 
a  setting  quiet  and  peaceful,  comes  before  the  mind  so  realistic  that  the  delicate 
perfume  of  the  fragrant  blossoms  is  almost  perceptible  and  the  memory  of  the  musical 
hum  of  the  little  honeybee  as  she  industriously  flits  from  blossom  to  blossom,  or 
wings  her  homeward  way  heavily  laden  with  the  delicious  nectar,  rests  one's  jaded 
nerves.  Into  this  picture  fits  closely  the  old  bee  master  among  his  old-fashioned  skeps, 
with  the  atmosphere  of  mystery  that  has  so  long  been  associated  with  the  master 
and  his  bees  that  one  is  almost  reluctant  to  think  of  the  production  of  honey  as  a 
great  commercial  industry,  employing  great  factories  in  the  manufacture  of  bee- 
hives and  other  equipment  necessary  for  the  modern  beekeeper  that  he  may  take 
full  advantage  of  the  wonderful  and  almost 
inconceivable  industry  of  the  honeybee  in 
storing  the  golden  nectar  of  the  blossoms. 

The  development  of  the  industry  has 
been  very  slow;  only  during  the  past 
fifty  years  has  real  progress  been  made, 
although  honey  formed  one  of  the  principal 
foods  of  the  ancients,  which  was  secured 
by  robbing  the  wild  bees.  During  the 
early  history  of  the  United  States,  beekeep- 
ing was  engaged  in  only  as  a  farmer's  side 
line,  a  few  bees  being  kept  in  any  kind  of  a 
box  sitting  out  in  the  backyard,  boarding 
themselves  and  working  for  nothing.  Even 
under  such  conditions  amazing  results  were 
often  obtained.  Lovers  of  nature  and 
the  out-of-doors  were  attracted  by  the 
study  of  bee  life,  and  early  beekeepers  were 
invariably  bee  lovers.  The  mysteries  of 

the  hive  as  revealed  in  the  story  of  the  family  life  of  the  bee — typical  in  many  ways 
of  our  modern  city  life — is  as  fascinating  as  a  fairy  tale. 

The  average  population  of  the  modern  beehive  varies  from  forty  to  sixty 
thousand,  with  a  well  organized  system  of  government.  Intense  loyalty  to  the 
queen  mother  is  apparent  in  all  their  activities  and  arrangements.  The  close  observer 
will  discover  a  well-defined  division  of  labor,  different  groups  of  bees  performing; 
certain  operations.  The  housekeeping  operations  seem  to  be  delegated  to  the  young 
bees  under  sixteen  days  old,  while  the  policemen  are  the  older  ones  whose  dispositions 
are  not  so  mild  and  who  would  be  more  likely  to  detect  a  stealthy  robber.  It  was 
this  intensely  interesting  side  of  bee  life  that  attracted  the  attention  of  a  clergyman 
in  failing  health,  forced  to  seek  out-of-door  occupation,  in  the  early. forties.  He  began 
to  investigate  bee  life  from  a  commercial  standpoint,  and  about  1852  devised  the 
movable  hanging  frame,  which  entirely  revolutionized  the  bee  business,  making 
modern  commercial  beekeeping  possible.  Up  to  this  time  the  box  hive  and  straw 
skep  were  the  only  ones  known,  the  combs  being  fastened  to  sticks,  or  the  roof  of  the 
box,  making  it  impossible  to  have  any  control  over  the  activities  of  the  hive.  The 
new  device  or  frame  to  which  the  bees  fastened  their  combs  in  which  brood  was 


FERTILIZING  A  PUMPKIN  FLOWER 


"Illustrations  by  courtesy  of  the  A.  I.  Root  Co. 


(183) 


184 


THE  STORY  IN  A  HONEY-COMB 


AN  ITALIAN  ARMY  OF  BEES 


ITALIAN  DRONE  ITALIAN  QUEEN  ITALIAN  WORKER 

(All  are  enlarged  to  about  three  times  their  size.) 


THE  STORY  IN  A  HONEY-COMB 


185 


reared  could  be  removed,  one  or  all,  at  any  time  desired.  This  opened  up  undreamed- 
of possibilities  in  the  bee  business,  which  up  to  this  time  could  hardly  be  called  an 
industry. 

The  man  who  has  been  most  active  in  developing  practical  bee  culture  and  who 
has  contributed  more  to  the  growth  of  the  industry  in  the  United  States  than  any 
other  person,  lives  in  Medina,  Ohio.  In  1865  this  man  was  a  successful  manufacturer 


A  STRANGE  HOME — BUT  THE  BEES  ARE  MAKING  HONEY 

of  jewelry  in  the  village  of  Medina.  One  day  his  attention  was  attracted  to  a  swarm 
of  bees  flying  over.  One  of  his  clerks  noticing  his  interest  asked  what  he  would 
give  for  the  bees.  He  replied  that  he  would  give  a  dollar,  not  expecting  that  by  any 
means  the  bees  could  be  brought  down.  Shortly  after,  he  was  much  astonished  to 
have  the  workman  bring  the  bees  safely  stored  inside  a  box  and  demand  his  dollar, 
which  he  promptly  received,  while  his  employer  had  the  bees  and  soon  developed  a  lot 
of  bee  enthusiasm.  The  returns  from  that  swarm  of  bees  convinced  him  that  there 
were  possibilities  in  the  bee  business,  and  very  soon  he  gave  up  the  jewelry  business 


186 


THE  STORY  IN  A  HONEY-COMB 


THE  STORY  IN  A  HONEY-COMB 


187 


"ALL  HAIL,  THE  QUEEN" 


to  engage  in  the  bee  business  and  manufacture  of  beehives.  In  this  new  move  he 
encountered  the  opposition  of  his  family  and  friends,  for  the  general  impression  was 
that  any  man  who  would  spend  money  or  time  on  bees  was  either  lazy  or  a  fool.  Know- 
ing that  this  particular  man  wasn't  lazy  he  was 
called  a  fool  to  risk  so  much  on  an  uncertain  enter- 
prise. In  his  defense  he  remarked  that  he  expected 
to  live  to  see  the  time  when  honey  would  be  sold  in 
every  corner  grocery;  but  we  doubt  if  he  expected 
to  see  his  prophecy  fulfilled  to  the  extent  it  has  been, 
for  not  only  is  honey  sold  over  every  grocer's  counter 
his  own  private  brand  is  sold  in  all  the  principal  mar- 
kets of  the  United  States. 

Shortly  after  securing  his  first  swarm  of  bees  he 
commenced  the  manufacture  of  beehives  in  the  same 
room  where  he  had  his  jewelry  business,  using  a  large 
windmill  for  power.  Soon  the  business  outgrew  the 
small  quarters  and  was  moved  to  the  present  location 
of  the  plant.  Hardly  a  year  has  passed  that  additions 
or  new  buildings  have  not  been  added,  and  the  mammoth 
plant  as  it  stands  today  covers  sixteen  acres  of  floor  space, 

giving  steady  employment  to  several  hundred  people,  and  for  many  years  modern 
agricultural  appliances  have  gone  from  this  factory  to  all  parts  of  the  world. 

The  old  method  of  straining  honey  has  long  since  been  replaced  by  the  centrifugal 
honey  extractor,  which  simply  empties  the  cells  of  honey,  not  injuring  the  cornbs. 
The  combs  are  then  replaced  in  the  hive  to  be  refilled  by  the  bees,  thus  saving  them  the 
labor  of  rebuilding  the  costly  structure,  increasing  the  quantity  of  extracted  honey 
which  a  single  colony  can  produce,  while  comb  honey  is  produced  so  perfect  in  appear- 
ance as  to  cause  some  to  believe  it  to  be  manufactured  by  machinery;  but  comb 

honey,  nature's  most  exquisite  product, 
comes  in  its  dewy  freshness  untouched  by 
the  hand  of  man,  from  the  beehive  to  the 
table,  a  food  prepared  in  nature's  laboratory 
fit  for  the  Gods. 

As  beekeeping  developed  as  an  industry, 
the  close  relationship  to  fruit  growing  and 
horticulture  became  apparent,  as  bees  were 
discovered  to  be  the  greatest  pollen  carry- 
ing agents  known.  The  government  than 
began  to  spend  more  money  on  the  develop- 
ment of  the  various  branches  of  agriculture; 
a  Department  of  Apiculture  was  established 
and  through  the  work  of  this  department 
beekeeping  is  recognized  as  one  of  the  most 
profitable  branches  of  agriculture. 

The  intense  enthusiasm  of  this  pioneer 
beekeeper  was  contagious  and  resulted  in 
many  taking  up  beekeeping.  As  no 
attention  had  been  given  to  developing  a 
market  for  honey  and  production  increased, 


THE  RESULT  op  A  BEE'S  STING 


older  beekeepers  ^  became  alarmed  and  raised  the  cry  that  he  was  making  too  many 
beekeepers.  Seeing  the  need  for  some  means  of  increasing  the  demand  for  honey,  a 
small  honey  business  was  started  to  dispose  of  the  product  of  customers  who  had  no 
market.  Soon  a  definite  educational  campaign  on  the  value  of  honey  as  a  food  was 


188 


THE  STORY  IN  A  HONEY-COMB 


A  LARGE  SWARM  OF  ITALIANS  ON  A  YOUNG  LOCUST  TREE 


ARRANGEMENT  OF  CELLS  IN  COMB 


HIGHLY  MAGNIFIED  EGG 


THE  STORY  IN  A  HONEY-COMB 


189 


started,  enlisting  the  co-operation  of  beekeepers  wherever  possible.    Immediately  the 
necessity  for  more  care  in  selecting  and  marketing  honey  was  apparent. 

The  introduction  of  Italian  bees  into  the  United  States  in  the  early  sixties  marked 
an  epoch  in  beekeeping,  as  they  soon  demonstrated  their  superiority  as  honey  gatherers, 


AN  OLD-STYLE  HIVE — What  is  inside? 

their  gentleness  and  other  traits  proving  them  more  adaptable  to  domestication  and  to 
modern  methods  of  beekeeping.  The  marked  superiority  of  some  colonies  over  others 
attracted  the^attention  of  beekeepers  to  the  possibility  of  race  improvement  by  careful 
breeding,  which  gradually  developed  a  new  branch  of  beekeeping  aside  from  honey 


190 


THE  STORY  IN  A  HONEY-COMB 


LOADING  AN  UP-TO-DATE  CENTRIFUGAL  EXTRACTOR 


IN  ACTION — FOJS  A  FEW  MINUTES  ONLY 


THE  STORY  IN  A  HONEY-COMB 


191 


production — that  of  queen  rearing — as  it  was  discovered  that  improvement  of  stock 
must  come  through  the  queen  mother.  The  average  production  of  honey  per  colony 
has  been  materially  increased,  due  not  alone  to  improved  methods,  but  to  improve- 
ment in  stock  by  careful  breeders;  and  there  are  many  beekeepers  engaged  exclusively 
in  this  branch  of  the  industry  who  enjoy  international  reputation  as  breeders  of 


A  MAN-SIZE  HIVE  OF  ITALIAN  BEES 

superior  strains  of  queens,  and  many  thousands  are  annually  sent  through  the  mails 
to  all  parts  of  the  world.  Live  bees  are  shipped  by  express  as  easily  as  poultry  or 
other  live  stock. 

m  The  honey  industry  is  unique  in  this  respect,  that  there  is  hardly  a  part  of  the 
United  States  where  one  cannot  engage  in  it  with  profit.  Locality  has  much  to  do 
with  the  flavor  and  quality  of  honey,  owing  to  the  different  sources  from  which  it  is 


192 


THE  STORY  IN  A  HONEY-COMB 


WE  MUST  BRUSH  THE  BEES  OFF  So  THAT  WE  CAN  SEE 
THE  COMB 


APTEB  CELL  CAPPINQS  ARE  Cur  OFF — READY  TO  EXTRACT 


THE  STORY  IN  A  HONEY-COMB 


193 


produced.  Honey  is  simply  blossom  nectar  gathered  by  the  bees,  distilled  or  evapo- 
rated in  the  beehive  with  the  same  distinctive  flavor  as  the  perfume  of  the  blossoms  from 
which  it  was  gathered;  consequently  we  have  as  many  different  flavors  of  honey  as 
plants  that  bloom  in  sufficient  profusion  to  produce  honey.  For  this  reason  it  is  easy 
to  recognize  the  distinct  flavors  of  honey  produced  in  different  localities.  In  California 
orange  honey  we  get  the  delicate  aroma  of  the  orange  blossoms,  and  the  water-white 
honey  from  the  mountain  sage  has  its  characteristic  flavor.  Throughout  the  states 
east  of  the  mountains  and  west  of  the  Mississippi,  are  produced  the  well-known  vari- 


" FRESH  AIR  BEES" — No  hive  needed. 


eties  of  honey — alfalfa,  sweet  clover  and  other  honeys  from  fall  flowers.  From  the 
Middle  West  and  Eastern  states  comes  the  matchless  white  clover  honey,  basswood 
and  the  dark  aromatic  buckwheat.  The  Southern  states  produce  a  multitude  of 
different  honeys,  the  sweet  clover,  tupelo,  and  the  palmetto  being  the  most  common. 
The  total  annual  production  of  honey  in  the  United  States  as  given  by  the  best 
authorities  is  approximately  55,000,000  pounds.  This,  compared  with  other  crop 
reports,  may  appear  very  small,  but  when  considered  from  the  standpoint  of  the 
enormous  amount  of  bee  labor  represented,  it  is  stupendous.  Undoubtedly  present 
reports  will  greatly  exceed  those  given. 

a 


194 


THE  STORY  IN  A  HONEY-COMB 


QUEEN  CELLS — Note  size  compared  with  worker  cells. 


MAGNIFIED  VIEW  PF  SECTION  OF  HONEYCOMB 


THE  STORY  IN  A  HONEY-COMB 


193 


SOME  OF  THE  BEST  HONEY  COMES  FROM  SUCH  LOCALITIES 


A  NICE,  EVEN  FRAME  OP  BEES 


196 


THE  STORY  IN  A  HONEY-COMB 


A  MODEL  ARRANGEMENT  FOR  KEEPING  BEES  FOR  PLEASURE 


REMOVING  BEES  FROM  COMB 


SECTIONS  OF  HONEY  AS  TAKEN  FROM  THE  SUPERS 


198 


WHERE  DO  FIGS  COME  FROM 


URUK  GIRLS  SPREADING  FIGS 


TYPICAL  SMYRNA  FIG  ORCHARD 


WHERE  DO  FIGS  COME  FROM     199 

Where  do  Figs  Come  From? 

The  fig  tree,  which  is  of  the  mulberry  family,  belonged  originally  in  Asia  Minor, 
but  it  has  been  naturalized  in  all  the  countries  around  the  Mediterranean.  It  grows 
from  fifteen  to  twenty,  or  even  thirty,  feet  high. 

In  good  climates  it  bears  two  crops  in  a  season;  one  in  the  early  summer,  from 
the  buds  of  the  last  year;  the  other,  which  is  the  chief  harvest,  in  the  autumn,  from 
those  on  the  spring  growth. 

Figs,  particularly  dried  figs,  form  an  important  article  of  food  in  the  countries 
of  the  Levant,  and  are  exported  in  large  quantities  to  America  and  Europe.  The 
best  come  from  Turkey. 

What  are  "  Fighting  Fish  "? 

Fighting  fish  are  a  small  fish  and  belong  to  the  climbing  perch  family.  They  are 
natives  of  the  southeast  of  Asia  and  are  remarkable  for  their  pugnacious  propensities. 

In  Siam  these  fish  are  kept  in  glass  globes,  as  we  keep  goldfish,  for  the  purpose  of  fight- 
ing, and  an  extravagant  amount  of  gambling  takes  place  about  the  result  of  the  fights. 

When  the  fish  is  quiet  its  colors  are  dull,  but  when  it  is  irritated  it  glows  with 
metallic  splendor. 

How  is  the  Exact  Color  of  the  Sky  Determined? 

An  instrument  called  a  "cyanometer,"  meaning  "measurer  of  blue,"  is  used  for 
ascertaining  the  intensity  of  color  in  the  sky. 

It  consists  of  a  circular  piece  of  metal  or  pasteboard,  with  a  band  divided  by 
radii  into  fifty-one  portions,  each  of  which  is  painted  with  a  shade  of  blue,  beginning 
with  the  deepest,  not  distinguishable  from  black,  and  decreasing  gradually  to  the 
lightest,  not  distinguishable  from  white.  The  observer  holds  this  up  between  himself 
and  the  sky,  turning  it  gradually  round  till  he  finds  the  tint  of  the  instrument  exactly 
corresponding  to  the  tint  of  the  sky. 

What  is  a  "  Divining  Rod  "? 

A  divining  rod  is  a  wand  or  twig  of  hazel  or  willow  used  especially  for  discovering 
metallic  deposits  or  water  beneath  the  earth's  surface. 

It  is  described  in  a  book  written  in  1546  and  it  has  also  a  modern  interest,  which 
is  set  forth  by  Prof.  W.  F.  Barrett,  F.R.S.,  the  chief  modern  investigator.  The  use 
of  the  divining  rod  at  the  present  day  is  almost  wholly  confined  to  water  rinding,  and 
in  the  hands  of  certain  persons  it  undoubtedly  has  produced  results  along  this  line 
that  are  remarkable,  to  say  the  least.  The  professional  water-finder  provides  himself 
with  a  forked  twig,  of  hazel,  for  instance,  which  twig,  held  in  balanced  equilibrium  in 
his  hands,  moves  with  a  sudden  and  often  violent  motion,  giving  to  the  onlooker  the 
impression  of  life  within  the  twig  itself.  This  apparent  vitality  of  the  twig  is  the 
means  whereby  the  water-finder  is  led  to  the  place  where  he  claims  underground  water 
to  exist,  though  its  presence  at  that  particular  spot  was  hitherto  wholly  unsuspected. 
While  failure  is  sometimes  the  outcome  of  the  water-finder's  attempts,  success  as 
often  and,  indeed,  according  to  the  testimony  of  Professor  Barrett, more  often  crowns  his 
efforts.  Various  explanations,  scientific  and  other,  of  the  phenomenon  have  been 
advanced.  Professor  Barrett  ascribes  it  to  "  motor-automatism  "  on  the  part  of  the 
manipulator  of  the  divining  rod,  that  is,  a  reflex  action  excited  by  some  stimulus 
upon  his  mind,  which  may  be  either  a  sub-conscious  suggestion  or  an  actual  impres- 
sion. He  asserts  that  the  function  of  the  forked  twig  in  the  hands  of  the  water-finder 
may  be  to  act  as  an  indicator  of  some  material  or  other  mental  disturbance  within 
him.  While  a  hazel  or  willow  twig  seems  to  be  preferred  by  the  professional  water- 
finders,  twigs  from  the  beech,  holly  or  any  other  tree  are  employed;  sometimes  even 
a  piece  of  wire  or  watch  spring  is  used,  with  apparently  as  good  results. 


The  Story  of  Electricity  in  the  Home* 

How  wonderful  to  youth  always  has  been  the  magical  story  of  Aladdin  and 
the  wonderful  lamp  which,  through  its  supernatural  powers,  he  could  gently  stroke 
and  thereby  make  genii  of  the  unknown  world  his  slaves. 

In  the  rush  of  modern  affairs  there  is  that  which  is  even  more  fascinating,  even 
more  wonderful,  than  the  story  of  Aladdin  and  the  magical  power  exerted  through 
his  lamp,  but  which  is  given  but  a  passing  thought  because  of  the  rapid  changes 
through  which  we  are  passing. 

Mythical  as  it  may  sound,  yet  nevertheless  it  is  true,  that  man  has  harnessed 
for  his  use  every  snowflake  that  falls  in  the  mountain  tops  and  settles  itself  in  the 
banks  of  perpetual  ice  and  snow.  How  man  has  tapped  the  mountain  fastnesses 
and  converted  the  melting  snows  into  a  servant  more  powerful,  more  magical,  more 
easily  controlled,  than  Aladdin's  genii,  should  be  known  to  everyone.  This  servant 
is  electricity. 

This  silent,  invisible  servant  is  ever  present,  always  ready  at  the  touch  of  a 
button  or  the  snap  of  a  switch,  without  hesitation,  without  grumbling,  to  do  silently, 
swiftly,  without  dirt,  without  discomfort,  without  asking  for  a  day  off  or  for  higher 
wages,  the  work  which  is  laid  out  for  it. 

The  use  of  electricity  is  so  common  today  that  the  average  person  does  not  stop 
to  think  of  it  as  a  magical  power  wielding  a  tremendous  influence  for  betterment 
in  every-day  affairs. 

Electricity  has  rapidly  found  its  way  into  the  home  for  domestic  purposes, 
eliminating  at  its  entrance  a  host  of  cares  of  the  household. 

So  recently,  as  to  seem  almost  yesterday,  the  genius  of  man's  brain  coupled 
electricity  with  mechanical  devices  for  the  comfort  and  efficiency  of  the  home. 

Although  a  number  of  attempts  have  been  made  to  build  appliances  for  use 
in  the  home  that  would  utilize  electricity,  the  real  beginning  of  the  present  almost 
universal  use  of  electrical  appliances  seems  to  have  been  in  the  manufacture  of  the 
electric  iron.  One  instance,  at  least,  coupled  with  the  manufacture  of  this  household 
necessity,  offers  something  of  romanticism. 

To  a  certain  western  state,  a  young  electrical  engineer  betook  himself,  obtaining 
a  position  as  superintendent  of  an  electric  power  company  and  establishing  his  abode 
in  a  tent  far  up  a  canyon,  more  for  the  benefit  of  his  wife's  health  than  for  the  thought 
of  being  near  the  power  plant  and  his  work.  The  melting  snow  which  gathered  in 
little  rivulets  made  a  roaring  mountain  stream  which  generated  such  an  excess  of 
power  for  the  company,  that  the  young  electrical  engineer  began  looking  about 
for  other  means  of  utilizing  it  than  for  lighting  the  homes  of  the  villages  below  the 
mouth  of  the  canyon.  He  designed  a  crude  electric  iron,  placed  a  number  of  them 
in  use,  and  found  they  gave  fairly  good  service  and  at  the  same  time  enabled  the 
power  company  to  sell  additional  current.  Development  of  the  device  was  rapid, 
so  rapid,  in  fact,  that  the  young  engineer's  time  was  soon  taken  up  with  it  and  he 
resigned  from  his  position  with  the  power  company  to  organize  a  small  concern  for 
the  purpose  of  manufacturing  electric  irons  which  at  first  were  sold  to  the  consumers 
of  the  power  company  and  later  to  a  large  nearby  city. 

These  irons  met  with  such  a  ready  reception  and  were  so  popular  with  house- 
wives because  of  the  time  saving  and  the  convenience,  that  attention  was  next 
turned  to  other  appliances  which  could  be  used  in  the  home  and  which  would  assist 

*  Illustrations  by  courtesy  of  the  Hotpoint  Electric  Heating  Co. 

(200) 


THE  STORY  OF  ELECTRICITY  IN  THE  HOME      201 


the  power  company  in  the  sale  of  current.  About  one  hundred  electric  cooking 
sets  were  manufactured,  consisting  of  ovens  and  crude  round  stoves.  These  were 
distributed  among  the  customers  of  the  power  company  and  thenceforth  their  opera- 
tion was  carefully  watched  and  improvements  made  from  time  to  time,  using  always 
the  suggestions  offered  by  the  housewives  to  make  an  appliance  that  would  meet 
the  needs  of  the  home. 

This  particular  company,  which  was  started  but  little  more  than  ten  years 
ago  in  a  small  room  of  a  store  building  in  a  small  town  of  Southern  California,  has 
grown  rapidly  from  that  time  when  its  complete  office  and  factory  force  consisted 
of  a  man  and  two  boys.  It  now  places  in  homes  well  toward  a  million  appliances 
each  year. 

Since  the  home  can  now  be  operated  almost  exclusively  with  electrical  appli- 
ances, including  everything  from  the  electric  iron  to  the  modern  labor-saving  electric 
range,  it  is  well  to  note  briefly  some  of  the  many 
reasons  for  the  success    of   electrically-heated 
appliances. 

Perhaps  most  noticeable  is  cleanliness  and 
the  absolute  absence  of  dirt  and  grime  in  using 
pure  electric  heat.  There  is  no  soot,  no  smoke 
nor  discoloration.  There  are  none  of  the  bad 
effects  so  often  caused  by  the  air  becoming 
vitiated,  due  to  the  burning  up  of  oxygen  in  the 
air  by  gas  and  other  fuels.  There  is  no  cor- 
rosion, oxidization  or  other  form  of  deterioration. 

Perfect  and  absolute  control  of  heat  seems 
to  be  secured.  The  easy  snap  of  the  controlling 
switch  on  the  electric  burner  gives  a  certain  inten- 
sity of  heat  which  remains  at  that  temperature 
so  long  as  the  switch  remains  in  that  position. 
Thus,  with  modern  appliances,  the  housewife 
operates  them  at  high,  medium  or  low  to  suit 
her  desires. 

Fire  risk  is  reduced  to  a  minimum,  because  there  are  no  matches,  no  kindlings, 
no  kerosene  cans,  no  oil  barrels  and  nothing  of  the  sort  to  endanger  life  and  property. 

The  efficiency  obtained  through  the  operation  of  electrical  appliances  soon 
becomes  evident  to  the  user.  The  heat  generated  for  ironing,  for  instance,  is  all 
utilized.  This  is  true  as  well  with  heating  or  cooking  appliances,  and  this  utiliza- 
tion of  practically  all  of  the  heat  units  naturally  results  in  economy  in  operation 
in  communities  where  the  lighting  or  power  company  has  made  a  favorable  rate. 

Because  the  electric  iron  seems  to  have  been  the  forerunner  of  electrical  appli- 
ances for  the  home,  it  is  well  first  to  describe  briefly  the  processes  of  manufacture 
necessary  before  the  iron  can  be  placed  in  the  home  and  take  its  position  as  one  of 
the  modern  labor-saving  devices. 

One  of  the  first  irons  to  be  manufactured,  an  illustration  of  which  is  shown  here- 
with, did  not  offer  the  pleasing  appearance  nor  give  the  service  of  its  youngest  sister, 
the  illustration  of  which  is  also  shown.  One  of  the  first  problems  was  to  control  the 
heat  at  the  iron,  and  to  do  this  a  separable  switch  plug  was  developed,  enabling  the 
operator  to  connect  or  disconnect  the  current  supply  at  the  iron. 

The  real  problem,  the  one  of  most  vital  importance  from  the  point  of  efficiency, 
was  that  of  the  heating  element  that  would  do  more  than  heat  the  center  of  the  sole 
plate.  One  of  the  pioneer  manufacturers,  after  numerous  experiments,  concluded 
that,  since  the  point  or  nose  of  an  iron  comes  first  in  contact  with  the  damp  goods, 
naturally  it  should  have  first  and  most  heat  applied  to  it.  The  result  was  a  double 


ORIGINAL  ELECTRIC  IRON 


202      THE  STORY  OF  ELECTRICITY  IN  THE  HOME 

heating  element  in  the  form  of  a  V,  the  resistance  wire  used  being  symmetrically 
wound  on  a  flat,  thin  mica  core.  This  V-shaped  element,  the  point  of  the  V  coming 
up  into  the  nose  of  the  iron,  insured  a  hot  point,  as  well  as  hot  sides,  center,  back 
and  heel,  where  the  terminals  were  connected  with  the  switch  plug  receptacle.  Another 
development  which  followed  was  that  of  an  attached  stand,  eliminating  the  necessity 


ELECTBIC  IRONS,  1916 


FIG.  1. — POURING  MOLTEN  METAL 
INTO  MOLDS  FOR  CASTING  IRON  SOLE 
PLATES 


FIG.  2. — WORKMAN  POLISHING  SOLE 
PLATES 


of  lifting  the  iron  on  and  off  a  stand  many  times  during  the  ironing.  At  first  the 
iron  was  heavy  and  clumsy,  being  built  of  cast  iron,  but  modern  manufacture  has 
made  it  possible  to  build  the  sole  plate  of  cast  iron  and  the  top  of  pressed  steel. 

The  illustrations  show  some  of  the  steps  necessary  before  the  iron  reaches  the 
shipping  room.  Fig.  1  shows  the  workman  pouring  an  earthen  ladle  of  molten  metal 
into  the  molds  in  which  the  sole  plates  are  cast.  Fig.  2  shows  the  sole  plate  in  the 
hands  of  the  workman,  held  against  a  rapidly  revolving  polishing  wheel,  after  it 
has  been  run  through  a  milling  machine  and  ground  to  a  perfect  size.  Fig.  3  shows 
a  huge  punch  press  which  cuts  the  blank  of  steel  that  is  afterwards  drawn  to  the 
shape  of  the  iron  top.  The  workman  is  seen  holding  in  his  hand  the  blank  cut  from 


THE  STORY  OF  ELECTRICITY  IN  THE  HOME      203 


a  sheet  of  steel  (Fig.  4).  The  blanks  of  flat  steel  of  such  irregular  shape  are  next 
passed  to  a  mammoth  draw  press  which  draws  blanks  into  the  perfect  shape  to  be 
fitted  over  the  top  of  the  pressure  plate  which  holds  the  heating  element  firmly  against 
the  sole  plate.  At  the  operator's  left  hand  is  a 
stack  of  blanks  and  in  his  left  hand  he  holds 
one  ready  to  be  placed  in  the  draw  press.  In 
his  right  hand  is  a  top  just  pulled  from  the 
press,  and  at  the  extreme  right  a  large  truck  full 
of  finished  tops  ready  for  the  polishing  wheels. 

Mica,  which  so  many  people  know  as  isin- 
glass, is  one  of  the  most  important  materials  in 
the  manufacture  of  the  standard  electric  iron. 
The  highest  grade  mica  comes  from  India  and 
the  open  box  in  the  picture  shows  thin,  trans- 
parent pieces  just  tumbled  out  (Fig.  5).  At 
the  edge  of  the  table  is  a  stack  of  mica  strips 
known  as  cores.  Hanging  over  the  top  of  the 
board  are  several  cores  on  which  the  resistance 
wire  has  been  wound,  showing  the  V-shaped 
heating  element. 

One  of  the  most  important  and  yet  seemingly  simple  parts  of  an  electric  iron 
is  the  switch  plug  which  connects  the  electric  light  socket  with  the  iron.  The  operator 
in  Fig.  6  is  shown  assembling  switch  plugs  and  is  in  the  act  of  driving  home  a  screw 
which  holds  in  place  the  fiber  bar  over  which  the  cord  bends. 


FIG.  3. — BLANKING  THE  STEEL  TOPS 


4. — DRAWING  THE  BLANKS  INTO  THE  PERFECTLY  SHAPED  TOPS 


204      THE  STORY  OF  ELECTRICITY  IN  THE  HOME 


OPERATOR  HOLDING  ELEMENT  BEFORE 
STRONG  LIGHT  TO  DETECT  DEFECTS  IN 
THE  MICA 


FIG.  5. — SHOWING  A  Box 
MICA 


OP  IMPORTED 


Above  on  the  table,  a  stack  of  "cores" 
and  several  elements  ready  for  insertion  in 
the  iron.  Notice  the  V  shape. 


INSPECTOR  WITH  CAREFULLY  TRAINED, 
SENSITIVE  FINGERS  INSPECTING  FIN- 
ISHED IRONS  BEFORE  THEY  ARE  ENCASED 
IN  THE  CARTON 


FIG.  6. — OPERATOR  ASSEMBLING  SWITCH 
PLUGS 


FIG.  7. — ELECTRIC  BOUDOIR  SET  THREE- 
POUND  IRON 

Stand  for  converting  the  iron  into  small 
stove,  curling  tongs  heater,  felt  bag. 


THE  STORY  OF  ELECTRICITY  IN  THE  HOME      205 

A  standard  six-pound  iron  consists  of  seventy-nine  parts  and  represents  two 
hundred  and  ten  distinct  factory  operations.  Every  part  is  carefully  inspected 
before  being  routed  to  the  assembling  department,  and  after  being  fully  assembled 
the  irons  are  placed  on  a  traveling  table  where  each  is  examined  in  its  turn  by  an 
inspector  with  carefully  trained  fingers,  sensitive  as  those  of  a  miller  who  tells  the 
quality  of  flour  by  pinching  it  between  his  thumb  and  forefinger.  This  inspector 
can  quickly  detect  in  the  handsome  finish  a  defect  that  is  unnoticeable  to  the 
average  person. 

The  Traveler's  Iron. 

Electric  current  is  so  nearly  universally  obtainable  that  milady  who  travels 
much  has  come  to  carry  in  her  grip  or  suitcase  a  light-weight  iron,  usually  of  about 
three  pounds,  and  to  aid  to  further  convenience,  the  manufacturer  has  supplied  with 
this  iron,  curling  tongs,  curling  tongs  heater  and  an  attached  stand  so  that  the  iron 
can  be  inverted  and  its  sole  plate 
used  as  a  small  disc  stove.  The 
entire  outfit  is  placed  in  a  neat  felt 
bag  as  shown  by  Fig.  7. 

Electric  Cooking  Appliances. 

It  is  stated  that  not  until  the 
reign  of  Queen  Elizabeth  did  women 
begin  to  take  over  generally  the 
handling  of  the  kitchen  work. 
Their  absence  from  this  important 
part  of  the  household  is  not  so 
much  to  be  wondered  at  when  we 
consider  the  size  of  the  joints  served  ELECTRIC  TOASTER  STOVE 

prior  to  the  time  of  that  well-known 

queen  and  the  crude  methods  of  preparing  the  meal.  On  the  other  hand,  it  may 
have  been  due  to  the  fact  that  the  Armada  called  for  men,  and  the  women  had 
to  go  into  the  kitchen  irrespective  of  conditions.  Be  that  as  it  may,  we  naturally 
conclude  that  the  evolution  of  the  kitchen  and  kitchen  work  began  at  about  that 
time,  for  very  shortly  after  the  open  fire  gave  way  to  some  of  the  more  crude 
methods  of  contained  fire  pots. 

It  was  many  years  after  Good  Queen  Bess'  reign  that  electricity  was  introduced 
in  England  for  cooking  purposes;  in  fact,  not  until  as  late  as  1891,  when  H.  J. 
Dowsing,  one  of  the  pioneers  of  electric  cooking,  exhibited  electric  cookers  and 
heaters  at  the  Crystal  Palace  Electrical  Exposition  in  London,  was  much  interest 
manifested. 

Divided  into  Three  Classes. 

Electric  cooking  appliances  can  very  conveniently  be  divided  into  three  classes: 
table  appliances,  and  the  light  and  heavy  duty  kitchen  appliances;  the  latter  being 
those  requiring  special  wiring.  Among  table  appliances  are  toasters,  coffee  perco- 
lators, electric  teapots,  chafing  dishes  and  numerous  other  articles  that  add  to  the 
convenience  of  preparing  food.  These  are  termed  light-duty  appliances,  as  they 
operate  from  the  light  socket. 

It  might  be  well  to  explain  that  the  lamp-socket  appliances  are  those  operating 
from  the  light  socket  and  are  built  to  carry  not  over  660  watts  of  current.  Should 
you  attach  an  appliance  of  heavier  wattage  to  a  light  socket  you  will  doubtless  "blow" 
a  fuse. 


206      THE  STORY  OF  ELECTRICITY  IN  THE  HOME 


Electric  Toaster. 

In  the  rush  and  hurry  of  modern  life,  we  are  inclined  to  go  back  to  the  days  of 
barbarism,  when  real  home  life  was  unknown.  Instead  of  all  members  of  the  family 
gathering  about  the  breakfast  table  when  the  meal  is  ready,  they  come  straggling 
in  one  by  one.  This  made  it  very  difficult  for  the  housewife  to  serve  the  breakfast 
hot,  and  particularly  the  toast,  which  is  a  favorite  dish  of  our  breakfast  table.  The 
necessary  steps  back  and  forth  from  the  breakfast  room  to  the  kitchen  to  prepare 

hot,  crunchy  toast  made  this  portion  of 
breakfast-getting  a  not  agreeable  feature. 
The  thought,  taken  up  by  electrical  engi- 
neers, brought  out  an  electric  toaster,  rect- 
angular in  shape,  with  handsome  frame, 
nickel  supports  and  wire  heating  element. 
This  was  indeed  very  efficient  and  could  be 
used  also  as  a  small  stove.  This  type  of 
toaster  was  followed  a  little  later  by  an 
upright  toaster  (Fig.  8).  The  heating  ele- 
ment is  of  the  radiant  type,  made  of  flat 
resistance  wire  wound  on  mica  and  placed 
in  a  vertical  position  between  the  two 
bread  racks.  When  the  current  is  switched 
on,  the  heating  element  becomes  red  and 
the  bread  is  inserted  under  the  gravity- 
operated  bread  clamps  on  each  side.  The 
bread  clamp  is  simply  raised  at  the  edge  of 
the  slice  of  bread,  and  holds  the  bread  firmly 

in  place.     This  appliance  toasts  bread  evenly,  rapidly,  and   costs  very  little  to 
operate.     The  flat  top  can  be  used  for  keeping  a  plate  warm  for  the  toast. 


FIG.  8. — ELECTRIC  UPRIGHT  TOASTER 


Electric  Coffee  Percolator. 

Lovers  of  good  coffee  want  it  served  hot,  but 
boiling  spoils  coffee.  The  modern  electric  perco- 
lator, which  can  be  operated  on  the  dining  table, 
has  solved  coffee-making  problems.  The  particu- 
lar style  of  percolator  shown  in  Fig.  9  has  no 
valves  or  floats  or  traps  that  continually  get  out 
of  order  and  that  make  the  cleaning  of  a  perco- 
lator so  disagreeable.  This  valveless  percolator 
is  very  easily  cleaned  and  requires  no  brush. 
The  heating  element  of  this  type  percolator  is  in 
the  bottom  of  the  pot  in  the  center  of  the  water 
space,  and  is  of  the  immersion  type,  protruding 
up  from  the  center  of  the  bottom  of  the  pot. 
The  heating  element  is  made  of  flat  ribbon  resist- 
ance wire  wound  on  mica,  then  bent  into  the 
form  of  a  cylinder  to  fit  into  the  German  silver 
shell.  A  screw-operated  spreader  in  the  center  FlG-  9-~ELE^RIcc0^IT°0KREL  VALVELESS 
presses  the  heating  element  tightly  against  the 

entire  surface  of  the  shell  and  insures  rapid  conduction  of  the  heat  from  the  element  to 
the  water.  A  study  of  the  illustration  showing  the  inside  of  the  percolator  (Fig.  10)  will 
make  clear  to  you  the  method  of  operation.  With  this  style  of  electric  percolator,  perco- 
lation begins  within  thirty  seconds  after  the  water  has  been  placed  in  the  pot 


THE  STORY  OF  ELECTRICITY  IN  THE  HOME      207 


the  current  turned  on,  and  delicious  coffee,  clear  as  amber,  is  ready  to  pour  in  ten 
minutes. 

Percolators  of  this  type  are  made  by  the  manufacturer  from  sheet  copper  spun 
in  perfect  shape,  and  also  aluminum  spun.  The  latter  makes  an  especially  desirable 
percolator. 


FIG  10. — X-RAY  SHOWING  THE 
VALVELESS  MECHANISM,  ELECTRIC 
PERCOLATER 

The  above  gives  a  comprehen- 
sive insight  into  the  general  con- 
struction, equipment  and  operation 
of  valveless  Percolators.  1-- — Glass 
globe.  2 — Aluminum  coffee  bas- 
ket. 3 — Element,  with  German- 
silver  shell — completely  surrounded 
by  water.  (Highly  efficient.)  4 — 
Interchangeable  switch-plug.  5 — 
Ebonized  wood — always-cool  han- 
dle. 6 — Copper  body — nickeled 
and  highly  polished.  7 — White 
metal  spout.  8 — Lid — securely 
fastened  hinge. 


FIG.  11. — ELECTRIC  MACHINE  TYPE 
VALVELESS  PERCOLATOR 


Machine  Type  Percolator. 

Because  some  prefer  to  draw  coffee  from  a  faucet  rather  than  pour  it  from  a 
spout,  manufacturers  have  made  a  percolator  of  this  type  called  the  machine  style. 
These  are  sold  in  various  patterns  from  the  Colonial  design,  like  the  illustration 
shown  (Fig.  11),  to  those  patterned  after  the  Grecian  urn. 

We  have  already  mentioned  how  an  electrical  engineer,  shortly  after  placing 
irons  in  the  homes  of  his  customers,  followed  them  with  a  number  of  small  stoves 
and  ovens.  These  required  special  wiring,  as  the  wattage  was  too  heavy  to  allow 
of  their  operation  from  the  light  socket.  Principally,  they  were  used  in  the  kitchen 
on  one  end  of  the  table  or  on  a  small  shelf.  This  method  necessitated  carrying  con- 
siderable food  to  the  dining  room  after  it  was  cooked,  and  brought  out  the  thought 
of  a  means  of  preparing  breakfast  or  a  luncheon  at  the  dining  table.  For  this  pur- 
pose a  small  stove  seemed  desirable,  and  the  result  was  a  small  disc  stove  made  of 
cast  iron,  highly  nickel  plated  and  polished. 


208      THE  STORY  OF  ELECTRICITY  IN  THE  HOME 


On  this  little  stove,  herewith  illustrated  (Fig.  12),  minor  cooking  operations 
can  be  performed,  such  as  frying,  boiling,  etc.,  and  it  is  used  by  many  for  toasting 
bread  by  placing  a  piece  of  metal  screen  on  top.  It  is  also  very  serviceable  for 
frying  hot  cakes.  The  heating  element  is  of  the  same  construction  as  that  in  the 
iron;  the  mica  is  clapped  tightly  against  the  metal  top  and  below  this  is  a  plate 
of  asbestos  which  prevents  the  downward  radiation  of  the  heat. 

This  disc  stove  was  first  made  in  single  heat,  but  the  later  improved  stoves  of 
this  same  type  are  made  in  three-heat  style. 

Many  improvements  have  been  made  on  the  disc  stoves  and  they  are  sold  not 
only  as  single,  but  as  double  or  twin,  and  triple  discs. 

One  often  finds  it  inconvenient,  when  traveling,  to  obtain  hot  water  whenever 

needed.  The  light  four-inch  disc 
stove  has  proved  to  be  a  very  desir- 
able possession  in  cases  of  this  kind. 
Its  size  makes  it  very  convenient  to 
pack  in  trunk  or  grip,  and  since  it 
operates  from  any  light  socket,  it  is 
very  handy,  not  only  for  the  traveler 
and  in  the  kitchen,  but  is  a  boon 
to  many  a  bachelor  man  or  maid. 

Perhaps,  before  going  further,  it 
is  well  to  explain  the  meaning  of 
single  and  three-heat.  Let  us  sup- 
pose that  you  are  operating  one  of 
the  small  disc  stoves  and  that  the 
stove  will  carry  600  watts  of  current. 
If  that  stove  is  equipped  with  a  single 
heat,  you  will  be  using  the  full  600  watts  whenever  the  switch  is  on.  If  it  is  equipped 
with  a  three-heat  switch,  it  can  be  adjusted  to  600  watts  at  full,  300  at  medium 
and  150  at  low,  which  means  a  great  saving  in  current  for  most  small  cooking 
operations. 

Two  Distinct  Types  of  Heating  Elements. 

There  are  two  very  distinct  types  of  electric  heating  elements  or  burners,  the 
disc  or  closed  type,  and  the  open-coil  type.  These  two  types  operate  on  entirely 
different  principles.  The  disc  stove  conveys  the  heat  to  the  food  by  the  principle 
of  conduction,  i.  e.,  the  heated  metal  top  of  the  stove  in  turn  conducts  the  heat  to 
the  metal  of  the  dish  and  thereby  heats  the  food  within  the  dish. 

The  open-coil  type  of  element  operates  on  the  principle  of  radiant  heat.  The 
heat  rays  from  the  element  are  focused  on  the  dish  in  which  the  food  is  being  pre- 
pared. In  the  former  style  burner,  sufficient  time  is  required  to  heat  the  metal  top 
of  the  stove  before  the  heat  can  be  utilized,  while  in  the  latter,  the  heat  is  almost 
instantaneously  effective.  Below  the  coils  of  the  radiant  type  of  grills  and  heaters 
shown  in  this  section  is  placed  a  highly  polished,  nickeled  disc  which  serves  to 
reflect  all  the  heat  unite  that  are  directed  downward,  back  to  the  dish  in  which  the 
food  is  being  prepared,  thereby  utilizing  a  maximum  of  the  heat  units  produced. 

One  very  distinct  advantage  in  the  open -coil  over  the  disc  type  is  that  in  the 
former  practically  all  the  utensils  found  in  the  average  home  can  be  satisfactorily 
used,  granite  and  enamel-ware  being  especially  desirable,  while  in  the  disc-type  stoves, 
it  is  necessary  to  have  dishes  with  smooth,  clean  bottoms  and  that  they  fit  very 
closely  in  order  to  make  metallic  contact  over  the  entire  surface. 

The  lightness,  convenience,  and  general  utility  of  the  small  open-coil  stove 
has  been  responsible  for  a  number  of  designs  being  manufactured  and  sold  in  enormous 


FIG.  12 — ELECTRIC  Disc  STOVE 


•. 


THE  STORY  OF  ELECTRICITY  IN  THE  HOME       209 


quantities,  these  being  made 
up  not  only  as  stoves,  but  as 
grills.  The  accompanying 
illustration  (Fig.  13)  is  of  a 
rectangular  grill,  made  of 
pressed  steel  and  highly  pol- 
ished, designed  to  operate 
from  any  electric  light  socket. 
The  heating  element  is  of  the 
open-coil  reflector  type  and  is 
so  placed  in  the  frame  that 
cooking  can  be  done  both 
above  and  below  the  glowing 
coils  at  the  same  time.  This 
is  a  convenience  and  economy, 
as  one  is  able  to  cook  two 
dishes  of  food  at  the  cost  of 
one.  This  particular  grill  is 
furnished  with  three  dishes, 
any  ODS  of  which  can  be  used 
either  above  or  below  the  coils. 
When  cooking  above  the  coils 
only  is  desired,  the  small  flat 
pan  is  placed  in  a  groove 
below  the  coils  to  reflect  to 
tiie  cooking  operation  any 
heat  that  would  be  thrown 
downward  from  the  heating 
element.  The  shallow  pan 
also  serves  as  a  cover  for  either 
of  the  deeper  dishes  or  for  a 
hot-cake  griddle. 

This  radiant  grill  is  light 
in  weight,  occupies  a  small 
space  and  is  a  most  desirable 
appliance  in  the  home,  to  be 
used  in  either  the  living  room 
or  dining  room  for  the  prepa- 
ration of  a  light  luncheon  or 
afternoon  tea  service. 

Of  the  same  manufacture 
is  the  radiant  grill  shown  in 
Fig.  14.  This  grill,  you  will 
note,  is  round,  which  particu- 
larly adapts  it  to  the  use  of 
utensils  ordinarily  found  in  the 
kitchen  of  the  average  home. 
You  will  note  that  there  are 
two  dishes  to  this  grill,  a  top 
dish  with  a  broiling  grid,  to  be 
used  ^  underneath  the  coils  for 
broiling  chops,  and  a  shallower 
dish  to  be  used  above  the  coils 

14 


FIG.  13. — ELECTRIC  RECTANGULAR  GRILL 


FIG.  14. — ELECTRIC  THREE-HEAT  GRILL 


FIG.  15. — ELECTRIC  RADIANT  STOVE 


210      THE  STORY  OF  ELECTRICITY  IN  THE  HOME 

for  frying  operations.  There  is  furnished  also  a  reflector  which  is  so  designed  that  it 
serves  equally  well  as  a  cover  for  either  dish  and  makes  a  very  choice  griddle  for 
baking  hot  cakes. 

While  this  particular  grill  is  furnished  with  a  wattage  providing  for  operation 
from  a  lamp-socket,  it  is  of  the  three-heat  style  already  spoken  of  as  so  desirable 
in  appliances  of  this  character.  A  companion  grill  to  this  is  of  the  same  design, 
excepting  that  it  is  furnished  in  single  heat  only  and  lists  at  a  somewhat  lower  price. 

You  will  remember  that  in  explaining  the  many  advantages  of  the  open-coil 
type  of  burner,  it  was  stated  as  one  of  these  that  the  housewife  could  use  cooking 
utensils  ordinarily  found  in  the  home,  and  because  of  this  peculiar  adaptability  the 
round  grills  here  spoken  of  and  illustrated  are  having  an  exceedingly  large  sale. 
These  open-coil  grills  are  also  very  efficient  as  toasters,  the  bread  being  placed  on 


FIG.  16. — ELECTRIC  CHAFING  DISHES 

top  of  the  grating,  which  protects  the  coils  from  injury.  Where  only  chops,  toast, 
and  coffee  are  to  be  had  for  breakfast,  chops  can  be  prepared  below  the  coils,  the 
toast  above,  while  the  coffee  gurgle-gurgles  in  the  percolator. 

Some  people  who  have  not  felt  any  need  of  a  grill  have  desired  an  open-coil 
stove,  and  of  this  same  general  type  of  manufacture  there  is  the  open-coil  radiant 
stove  herewith  illustrated  (Fig.  15).  It  is  equipped  with  the  same  kind  of  a  burner 
or  element  with  a  reflector  underneath,  and  can  be  used  very  efficiently  with  ordinary 
cooking  utensils  and  is  also  very  serviceable  as  a  toaster.  Using  this  stove  in  combi- 
nation with  the  ovenette,  which  will  be  illustrated  further  on,  the  owner  is  provided 
with  a  table  range  which  meets  most  of  the  requirements  in  a  small  family. 

A  line  of  cooking  utensils  would  not  be  complete  without  suitable  designs  of 
chafing  dishes,  and  these  are  made  in  several  styles,  both  with  and  without  heating 
elements,  the  latter  being  used  on  the  disc  and  open-coil  stoves  already  illustrated, 
while  the  former  contains  a  heating  element  very  much  along  the  lines  of  the  perco- 
lator. These  are  furnished,  as  you  will  note  from  the  illustration  (Fig.  16),  with 
suitable  cooking  pans  for  the  preparation  of  chafing-dish  dainties. 

Baking  and  Roasting. 

It  is  only  natural  to  suppose  that  manufacturers  of  electric  stoves  of  both  light 
and  heavy  duty  should  next  turn  their  attention  to  ovens,  since  oven  cooking  is  even 
primary  to  cooking  that  is  done  on  open  burners  and  is  now  coming  to  be  even  of 
more  importance.  The  first  oven  herewith  shown  (Fig.  17)  is  of  the  lamp-socket 
type,  equipped  with  three  heats,  providing  a  very  efficient  oven  for  small  operations. 
The  second  one  illustrated  (Fig.  18)  is  of  standard  size  and  accommodates  a  quantity 
of  food  equal  to  that  of  any  large  range  oven.  It  is  provided  with  a  heavy  wattage 
and  therefore  requires  special  wiring. 

To  meet  the  requirements  of  the  many  families  in  which  such  a  small  amount 
of  baking  is  done,  and  to  cater  particularly  to  apartment-house  dwellers,  the  manu- 


THE  STORY  OF  ELECTRICITY  IN  THE  HOME      211 


facturers  of  the  line  of  radiant  stoves  described  and  illustrated  have  brought  forth 
a  small  cylindrical  oven  called  the  ovenette.  This  little  oven  fits  either  the  radiant 
stove  or  the  round  radiant  grill.  It  is  made  of  pressed  steel  and  finished  in  highly 
polished  nickel.  This  ovenette,  in  combination  with  either  the  radiant  stove  or  the 
round  radiant  grill,  provides  complete  cooking  equipment  upon  which  an  entire 
meal  can  be  prepared,  whether  it  be  heating  rolls  and  preparing  crisp  bacon  or  chops* 
for  breakfast,  or  baking  a  roast,  a  loaf  cake  or  even  bread  for  the  dinner.  It  will 
bake  pies,  cake,  biscuit,  potatoes,  roast  meats,  etc.,  up  to  its  capacity,  at  a  less 


Fia.  17. — ELECTRIC  LAMP-SOCKET  OVEN 


FIG.  18. — ELECTRIC  STANDARD  OVEN 


current  cost  than  is  possible  with  the  larger  oven  and  in  less  time.  This  ovenette 
has  what  is  called  a  middle  ring,  which  makes  it  adjustable  to  two  sizes  when  large 
or  small  quantities  of  food  are  to  be  prepared. 

So  you  see.  the  woman  of  today  who  utilizes  current  furnished  through  the 
light  socket,  can  bring  to  her  command  genii  as  wonderful  as  those  at  the  command 
of  Aladdin  when  he  stroked  the  wonderful  lamp.  Her  household  duties  are  made 
easier.  There  is  far  less  preparatory  work  and  she  is  able  to  place  her  home  on  a 
much  more  efficient  basis  than  with  ordinary  methods. 

The  home  electrical  is  not  complete  without  containing  at  least  some  of  the 
electrical  appliances  which  have  been  designed  for  the  purpose  of  alleviating  pain. 
One  of  these  is  an  electric  heating  pad  made  of  steel  units,  so  hinged  as  to  make  the 
appliance  sufficiently  flexible  to  be  wrapped  around  an  arm  or  limb  and  to  conform 
to  the  curves  of  the  body.  The  other  is  a  pad  made  of  aluminum  which  is  concave 
on  one  side  and  convex  on  the  other  and  may  be  used  in  a  wet  pack.  Each  of  these 
heating  pads  is  covered  with  a  high-grade  cover  of  eiderdown  which  provides  a  soft 
contact  for  the  skin. 

Perhaps  next  in  importance  along  this  line  of  electrical  appliances  is  the  small 
immersion  heater  shown  in  Fig.  19,  and  which  requires  so  little  space  that  it  can  be 
easily  carried  even  in  a  woman's  handbag.  This  style  of  heater  will  quickly  heat  a 
glass  of  water  by  simply  immersing  the  heater  in  the  water.  This  device  is  very 
extensively  used  by  mothers  in  heating  milk  for  the  baby,  by  men  in  heating  water 
for  shaving,  and  by  doctors  and  dentists  who  require  small  quantities  of  hot  water 
for  sterilizing  and  other  uses. 

One  thing  most  desirable  in  connection  with  practically  all  of  the  lamp-socket 
appliances  described  and  illustrated  in  this  section  is  the  very  small  cost  of  operation. 
Lighting  companies  have  so  reduced  the  cost  of  current  within  the  last  two  or  three 


212      THE  STORY  OF  ELECTRICITY   IN  THE  HOME 

years  that  a  breakfast  may  now  be  prepared  electrically  for  not  more  than  a  couple 
of  cents,  while  one  of  the  pads  may  be  used  an  entire  night  at  a  cost  of  less  than  one 
cent  in  soothing  rheumatic  pains  or  in  driving  away  the  chill  for  outdoor  sleepers. 

But  one  of  the  hardest  domestic  tasks  is  that  of  keeping  the  house  clean.     To 
obviate  the  difficulties  encountered  in  this  connection  and  to  make  the  home  sanitary, 


FIG.  19. — ELECTRIC  IMMERSION  HEATER 


ELECTRIC  ALUMINUM  COMBO 


ELECTRIC  FLEXIBLE  COMFO  (Metal) 


FIG.  20. — ELECTRIC  VACUUM  CLEANER 


electric  vacuum  cleaners  are  provided  by  several  manufacturers,  a  very  recent 
acceptable  type  being  illustrated  in  Fig.  20.  This  type  of  vacuum  cleaner,  which 
is  reasonable  in  price,  is  made  of  steel  and  finished  in  very  highly  polished  nickel. 
It  operates  from  any  light  socket  and  consumes  but  a  very  small  amount  of  current, 
much  less  than  is  consumed  by  a  toaster.  It  can  also  be  purchased  with  different 
attachments  with  which  curtains,  radiators,  clothes  and  walls  may  be  cleaned. 
The  possession  in  the  home  of  one  of  these  vacuum  cleaners  makes  it  unnecessary 


THE  STORY  OF  ELECTRICITY  IN  THE  HOME      21$ 


to  take  up  rugs,  carpets,  tear  down  curtains  and  go  through  the  semi-annual  worry, 
wear  and  tear  of  house  cleaning.     The  vacuum  cleaner  will  do  it  better  and  many 
times  quicker  without  removing  a  single  article  of  furniture  or  disturbing  a  rug  or 
curtain;   and  instead  of  scat- 
tering the  dust-laden  germs 
in  the  air,  to  be  drawn  into 
the  nostrils  and  lungs  of  the 
family,   the   cleaner   sucks 
them  up  into  a  dust-tight  bag 
from  which  they  can  be  de- 
posited on  a  paper   and 
burned. 

The  evolution  in  cooking 
and  heating  appliances  for 
the  home  in  the  last  ten 
years  has  ineeed  been  rapid, 
but  it  is  very  recently  indeed 
that  the  housewife  has  been 
able  to  satisfy  the  longing 
and  the  desire  that  has  kept 
getting  stronger  from  day  to 
day,  since  first  she  began  to 
use  electric  cooking  appli- 
ances. She  has  been  dream- 
ing of  that  which  would 
make  her  kitchen  a  domestic- 
science  laboratory,  and  her 

dream  can  come  true  because  •  ^  21.— ELECTRIC  RANGE 

now  she  can  purchase  an  elec- 
tric range  patterned  in   general  style   after  the  more  acceptable  gas  or  other  fuel 
ranges,  but  infinitely  more  efficient. 

The  particular  type  of  range  herewith  illustrated  (Fig.  21)  uses  a  burner  of  the 
open-coil  type,  both  for  the  surface  burners  and  for  the  oven.  The  ovens  are  highly 
insulated  with  a  thick  packing  of  best  grade  mineral  wool,  which  reduces  air  leakage 
to  a  minimum  and  retains  the  heat  generated  for  a  long  period.  Many  cooking 
operations  which  are  performed  in  ordinary  ovens  with  the  burners  on,  can  be  pre- 
pared in  this  particular  style  of  oven  by  using  stored  heat  for  the  last  half  of  the 
operation.  The  range  is  simplicity  itself  in  operation.  Each  burner  is  operated  by 
an  indicating  snap  switch  which  has  three  separate  heats,  full,  medium  and  low; 
medium  being  one-half  of  full  and  low  one-half  of  medium.  There  are  no  matches; 
there  is  no  danger  from  fire.  There  is  no  vitiated,  foul  air  because  of  noxious  gases 
from  ordinary  cooking  stoves.  There  is  no  soot  or  grime,  no  ashes,  no  wood  or  coal 
to  carry;  there  are  fewer  steps;  there  is  less  watching  of  the  range;  practically  none 
at  all,  because  when  a  burner  is  turned  to  medium,  for  instance,  you  know  that  you 
have  a  certain  degree  of  heat  for  just  as  long  as  the  switch  is  in  that  position.  Results 
are  eminently  satisfactory  and  there  is  a  sufficient  saving  in  the  weights  and  the 
nutritive  value  of  foods  cooked,  especially  in  the  oven,  to  make  the  electric  range 
indeed  a  most  desirable  and  economical  addition  to  any  home. 

Today,  the  housewife,  whether  the  provider  of  the  home  be  a  laborer  or  a 
merchant  prince,  can,  with  a  simple  touch  of  the  button  or  a  snap  of  the  switch, 
bring  to  her  immediate  command,  and  subservient  to  her  wishes,  that  subtle  some- 
thing which  came  in  the  snowflake,  and  which,  while  invisible,  yet  provides  the 
greatest  boon  to  mankind — electricity. 


214 GASOLINE  ELECTRIC  STREET  CAR 

Why  is  there  Always  a  Soft  Spot  in  a  Cocoanut  Shell? 

A  cocoanut  shell  always  has  a  soft  spot  at  one  end  because  this  is  the  provision 
nature  has  made  to  allow  the  embryo  of  the  future  tree  to  push  its  way  out  of  the 
hard  shell. 

Cocoanuts,  as  most  of  us  know,  have  a  thick,  hard  shell,  with  three  black  scars 
at  one  end.  The  soft  scar  may  easily  be  pierced  with  a  pin;  the  others  are  as  hard 
as  the  rest  of  the  shell.  Outside  of  this  hard  shell  we  are  accustomed  to  seeing 
another  covering  of  considerable  thickness,  of  an  extremely  fibrous  substance.  When 
cocoanuts  are  picked,  however,  they  have  still  another  covering — an  outer  rind 
which  has  a  smooth  surface. 

The  tree  which  produces  the  cocoanut  is  a  palm,  from  sixty  to  a  hundred  feet 
high.  The  trunk  is  straight  and  naked,  and  surmounted  by  a  crown  of  feather-like 
leaves.  The  nuts  hang  from  the  summit  of  the  tree  in  clusters  of  a  dozen  or  more 
together. 

Food,  clothing  and  the  means  of  shelter  and  protection  are  all  afforded  by  the 
cocoanut  tree.  The  kernels  are  used  as  food  in  a  number  of  different  forms,  and 
when  pressed,  they  yield  an  oil  which  is  largely  used  in  candle  making  and  in  the 
manufacture  of  soaps.  When  they  are  dried  before  the  oil  is  pressed  out  they  are 
known  as  "  copra." 

We  have  given  the  name  "milk"  to  the  sweet  and  watery  liquid,  of  a  whitish 
color,  which  is  inclosed  in  considerable  quantity  in  the  kernel. 

By  boring  the  tree  itself,  a  white,  sweetish  liquid  called  "toddy"  exudes  from 
the  wound.  This  yields  one  of  the  varieties  of  the  spirit  called  "arack"  when  dis- 
tilled. A  kind  of  a  sugar  called  "jaggery"  is  also  obtained  from  the  cocoanut  juice. 

The  fibrous  coat  of  the  nut  is  made  into  a  preparation  called  "cellulose,"  which 
is  described  in  another  story  in  this  book,  and  also  into  the  well-known  cocoanut 
matting.  The  coarse  yarn  obtained  from  it  is  called  "coir,"  and  it  is  also  used  for 
cordage.  The  hard  shell  of  the  nut  is  polished  and  made  into  cups  and  other  domestic 
utensils.  The  fronds  are  wrought  into  baskets,  brooms,  mats,  sacks  and  many  other 
useful  articles;  and  the  trunks  are  made  into  boats,  and  furnish  timber  for  the  con- 
struction of  houses.  Altogether  the  cocoanut  palm  will  be  seen  to  be  a  very  useful 
member  of  the  plant  kingdom. 

How  does  a  Gasoline  Motor  Run  an  Electric  Street  Car? 

A  gasoline-electric  railroad  train  was  introduced  in  Germany  in  1913.  It  com- 
prises a  power  car  and  ten  other  cars,  each  of  a  five-ton  capacity,  which  trail  along 
behind.  The  power  car  carries  two  gasoline  engines  of  a  hundred  and  twenty-five 
horse-power  each  which  drive  a  dynamo  installed  in  the  center.  The  current  is  trans- 
mitted to  the  electric  motors,  actuating  each  of  the  wheels  of  the  power  car  and 
the  trailers.  The  General  Electric  Company  has  perfected  a  similar  car  for  use  on 
the  suburban  branches  of  street  railroads  in  this  country.  Most  of  them  are  equipped 
with  a  two  hundred  horse-power  gasoline  engine  directly  connected  to  a  dynamo 
from  which  power  is  generated  and  transmitted  to  the  motors,  which  are  located  on 
the  car  axles.  Cars  of  this  type  can  be  made  of  a  larger  seating  capacity  than  is 
customary  and  can  easily  attain  a  speed  of  a  mile  a  minute. 

Gasoline  engines  offer  great  advantages  over  steam  because  of  the  absence  of 
boilers,  coal  and  ashes,  and  a  much  higher  efficiency  is  obtainable,  a  consumption 
of  one  pint  of  gasoline  per  horse-power  hour  being  good  practice  for  well-designed 
motor  engines  and  a  total  efficiency  of  from  ten  to  thirty-five  per  cent  of  the  energy 
in  the  fuel  being  available,  as  against  one  to  twenty  per  cent  for  steam  averages. 
The  utilization  of  the  gasoline  engine  to  generate  electric  power  for  surface  cars, 
in  instances  where  it  is  not  practical  to  transmit  energy  from  power  stations,  presents 
wonderful  possibilities. 


GASOLINE  ELECTRIC  STREET  CAR 


215 


§ 
I 

I 


216      HOW  "CARRIER  PIGEONS"   CARRY  MESSAGES 

How  do  "  Carrier  Pigeons  "  Carry  Messages? 

The  real  carrier  pigeon  is  a  large  bird  with  long  wings,  a  large  tuberculated  mass 
of  naked  skin  at  the  base  of  the  beak,  and  a  circle  of  naked  skin  round  the  eyes,  but 
the  variety  generally  employed  to  carry  messages  more  resembles  an  ordinary  pigeon. 

The  practice  of  sending  letters  by  pigeons  belongs  originally  to  Eastern  countries, 
though  in  other  countries  it  has  often  been  adopted,  more  especially  before  the  inven- 
tion of  the  electric  telegraph.  An  actual  post-system  in  which  pigeons  were  the 
messengers  was  established  at  Bagdad  by  the  Sultan  Nureddin  Mahmud,  who  died 
in  1174,  and  lasted  till  1258,  when  Bagdad  fell  into  the  hands  of  the  Mongols  and  was 
destroyed  by  them. 

These  birds  can  be  utilized  in  this  way  only  hi  virtue  of  what  is  called  their 
" homing"  faculty  or  instinct,  which  enables  them  to  find  their  way  back  home  from 
surprising  distances.  But  if  they  are  taken  to  the  place  from  which  the  message  is 
to  be  sent  and  kept  there  too  long,  say  over  a  fortnight,  they  will  forget  their  home 
and  not  return  to  it.  They  are  tried  first  with  short  distances,  which  are  then  grad- 
ually increased.  The  missive  may  be  fastened  to  the  wing  or  the  tail,  and  must  be 
quite  small  and  attached  so  as  not  to  interfere  with  the  bird's  flight. 

By  the  use  of  microphotography  a  long  message  may  be  conveyed  in  this  way, 
and  such  were  received  by  the  besieged  residents  in  Paris  during  the  Franco-Prussian 
War  of  187O-71  the  birds  being  conveyed  out  of  the  city  in  balloons. 

Seventy-two  miles  in  two  and  one-half  hours,  a  hundred  and  eighty  in  four  and 
one-half,  have  been  accomplished  by  carrier  pigeons.  Large  numbers  of  these  birds 
are  now  kept  in  England,  Belgium,  France,  etc.,  there  being  numerous  pigeon  clubs 
which  hold  pigeon  races  to  test  the  speed  of  the  birds.  These  pigeons  are  also  kept 
in  several  European  countries  for  military  purposes. 

What  Family  has  Over  9,000,000  Members? 

Each  female  cod  has  more  than  9,000,000  eggs,  but  the  numbers  are  kept  down 
by  a  host  of  enemies. 

The  most  interesting  species  is  the  "Common"  or  "Bank  Cod."  Though  they 
are  found  plentifully  on  the  coasts  of  other  northern  regions,  such  as  Britain,  Scandi- 
navia and  Iceland,  a  stretch  of  sea  near  the  coast  of  Newfoundland  is  the  favorite 
annual  resort  of  countless  multitudes  of  cod,  which  visit  the  "Grand  Banks"  to  feed 
upon  the  molluscous  animals  abundant  there,  and  thus  attract  fleets  of  fishermen. 

The  spawning  season  on  the  banks  of  Newfoundland  begins  about  the  month  of 
March  and  terminates  in  June;  but  the  regular  period  of  fishing  does  not  commence 
before  April,  on  account  of  the  storms,  ice  and  fogs.  The  season  lasts  till  the  end  of 
June,  when  the  cod  commence  their  migrations. 

The  average  length  of  the  common  cod  is  about  two  and  one-half  or  three  feet, 
and  the  weight  between  thirty  and  fifty  pounds,  though  sometimes  cod  are  caught 
weighing  three  times  as  much.  The  color  is  a  yellowish  gray  on  the  back,  spotted 
with  yellow  and  brown;  the  belly  white  or  red,  with  golden  spots  in  young  specimens. 

Few  members  of  the  animal  creation  are  more  universally  serviceable  to  man  than 
the  codfish.  Both  in  its  fresh  state  and  when  salted  and  dried,  it  is  a  substantial  and 
wholesome  article  of  food.  The  tongue  is  considered  a  delicacy.  The  swimming- 
bladders  or  "sounds,"  besides  being  highly  nutritious,  supply,  if  rightly  prepared, 
isinglass  equal  to  the  best  of  that  which  is  brought  from  Russ:a,  The  oil,  which  is 
extracted  from  the  liver,  is  of  great  medicinal  value,  and  contributes  considerably  to 
the  high  economic  value  of  the  cod. 

The  finest  and  palest  oil  is  made  from  fresh  and  carefully  cleaned  liver,  the  oil 
being  extracted  either  in  the  cold  or  by  a  gentle  heat.  Only  the  pale  oils  are  used 
in  medicine;  the  dark  oils  are  too  rank  and  acrid,  and  they  are  only  used  in  dressing 
leather. 


The  Story  in  the  Telephone* 

On  March  10,  1876,  Alexander  Graham  Bell,  standing  in  a  little  attic  at  No.  5 
Exeter  Place,  Boston,  sent  through  his  crude  telephone  the  first  spoken  words  ever 
carried  over  a  wire,  and  the  words  were  heard  and  understood  by  his  associate, 
Thomas  A.  Watson,  who  was  at  the  receiver  in  an  adjacent  room.  On  that  day 
the  telephone  was  born,  and  the  first  message  went  over  the  only  telephone  line  in 


DR.  ALEXANDER  GRAHAM  BELL  AT  THE  OPENING  OP  THE  TRANSCONTINENTAL  LINE 

In  front  of  Dr.  Bell  is  the  replica  of  his  original  telephone,  and  to  his  left  is  the  glass  v,«oo 
containing  a  piece  of  the  wire  over  which  Dr.  Bell  and  Mr.  Watson  carried  on  the  first  tele- 
phone conversation  in  the  world. 

the  world — a  line  less  than  a  hundred  feet  long.  On  January  25,  1915,  less  than  forty 
years  later,  this  same  Alexander  Graham  Bell,  in  New  York,  talked  to  this  same  Thomas 
A.  Watson,  in  San  Francisco,  over  a  wire  stretching  3,400  miles  across  the  continent. 
In  that  memorable  year  of  1876,  Dom  Pedro,  Emperor  of  Brazil,  while  visiting 
the  Philadelphia  Centennial,  was  attracted  to  Bell's  modest  telephone  exhibit, 
picked  up  the  receiver,  listened  as  Professor  Bell  talked  at  the  other  end  of  the 
room,  and,  amazed  at  the  wonder  of  the  thing,  cried  out,  "My  God — it  speaks!" 

"••Illustrations  by  the  courtesy  of  the  American  Telephone  and  Telegraph  Co. 

(217) 


218 


THE  STORY  IN  THE  TELEPHONE 


From  that  time,  the  first  telephone  exhibit  became  the  center  of  attraction  at  the 
exposition.  Had  Dom  Pedro  lived  to  see  the  Panama-Pacific  Exposition  he  might 
have  listened  to  Professor  Bell  talking  not  merely  from  the  other  end  of  a  room, 
but  from  the  other  side  of  a  continent. 

Some  idea  of  the  rapid  growth  of  the  telephone  business  in  the  United  States 
may  be  gathered  from  the  statistician's  figures,  which  show  that  in  1880  there  were 
less  than  100,000  telephones  in  use  in  this  country,  and  in  1915  there  were  more 
than  9,000,000  telephones  in  the  Bell  System  alone.  Of  the  14,000,000  telephones 
in  the  world,  10,000,000  are  in  this  country.  Sixty-five  per  cent  of  all  the  telephones 
in  the  world  are  in  this  country,  although  it  has  only  five  and  five-tenths  per  cent  of 


CENTRAL  TELEPHONE  EXCHANGE,  NEW  YORK  CITY,  1880 

the  world's  population.  The  Bell  System  alone  reaches  70,000  places,  5,000  more 
than  the-number  of  post-offices  and  10,000  more  than  the  number  of  railroad  stations. 
The  telephone  wire  mileage  in  the  United  States  is  over  22,000,000  miles.  In 
the  Bell  System  there  are  over  18,000,000  miles  of  wire  which  carry  over  26,000,000 
telephone  talks  daily— -or  nearly  9,000,000,000  per  year. 

Essential  Factor  in  American  Life. 

Such  broad  use  is  made  of  the  telephone  service  of  America  that  the  progress 
in  telephony  is  an  essential  factor  in  all  American  progress. 

A  visiting  Englishman  envying  the  light,  airy  accommodations  in  the  tall 
office  buildings  in  American  cities,  has  sagely  said  that  the  skyscraper  would  be 
impossible  without  the  adequate  telephone  service  which  is  here  provided. 

In  the  housing  of  the  people  the  telephone  is  a  pioneering  agent  for  better  condi- 
tions. In  the  cities  telephone  service  is  indispensable  in  apartment  houses  and 
hotels  which  raise  people  above  the  noise  and  dust  of  the  street.  In  the  suburbs  the 
telephone  and  the  trolley  make  the  waste  places  desirable  homes,  and  although  a 


THE  STORY  IN  THE  TELEPHONE 


219 


220  THE  STORY  IN  THE  TELEPHONE 

man  may  walk  some  distance  to  reach  some  transportation  line,  the  telephone  must 
enter  his  own  dwelling  place  before  he  is  content  to  live  there. 

This  desirable  decentralization  of  the  population  in  which  the  telephone  has 
been  so  important  a  factor  extends  beyond  the  suburbs  to  the  rural  districts,  and 
the  American  farmer  with  his  wife  and  family  is  blessed  by  facilities  for  communica- 
tion unknown  in  any  other  part  of  the  world.  The  fact  that  the  farms  and  ranches 
in  this  country,  and  especially  in  the  west,  have  been  of  comparatively  large  area, 
has  had  a  tendency  to  make  American  farm  life  particularly  lonely.  It  is  safe  to 
say  that  nothing  has  done  more  to  relieve  this  loneliness  and  prevent  the  drift  from 
the  farms  to  the  cities,  than  the  widespread  establishment  of  rural  telephone  service. 

The  telephone  development  of  the  United  States  is  not  confined  to  the  large 
centers  of  population,  but  is  well  distributed,  the  large  number  of  farm  telephones 
in  this  country  being  in  strong  contrast  to  the  small  number  of  farm  telephones  in 
European  countries. 

It  is  obvious  that  the  ordinary  methods  of  commerce  and  manufacture  would 
have  to  be  radically  made  over  if  the  telephone  service  should  lose  any  of  its  present 
efficiency  or  if  it  should  fail  to  advance  so  as  to  meet  the  constantly  increasing 
demands  made  upon  it.  With  the  first  day  of  telephone  congestion  ordinary  busi- 
ness would  come  to  a  standstill,  and  when  an  adjustment  was  made,  everybody 
would  find  himself  slowed  down,  doing  less  work  in  longer  hours  and  at  greater 
expense,  and  being  unable  to  take  advantage  of  opportunities  for  advancement 
which  he  had  come  to  consider  an  inalienable  right. 

Not  only  would  methods  be  changed,  but  the  physical  structure  of  business, 
especially  in  cities,  would  be  completely  metamorphosed.  The  top  floors  of  office 
buildings  and  hotels  would  be  immediately  less  desirable.  In  tall  buildings  the 
multitude  of  messengers  and  the  frequent  passing  in  and  out  would  demand  the 
increase  in  elevator  facilities  and  even  the  enlargement  of  halls  and  doorways. 
Many  of  the  narrower  streets  would  be  impassable.  Factories  and  warehouses 
now  located  in  the  open  country  where  land  is  cheap  and  the  natural  conditions  of 
working  and  living  are  most  favorable,  would  be  relocated  in  cities  as  close  as  possible 
to  their  administrative  and  merchandising  headquarters. 

It  would  be  hard  to  find  a  line  of  business  where  progress  would  not  be  seriously 
retarded  by  an  impairment  of  the  present  telephone  efficiency. 

America  Leads  in  Telephone  Growth. 

It  is  a  far  cry  from  BelPs  first  telephone  to  Universal  Service. 

BelPs  invention  had  demonstrated  the  practicability  of  speech  transmission, 
but  there  were  many  obstacles  to  overcome  and  many  problems  to  be  solved  before 
the  telephone  could  be  of  commercial  value  and  take  its  place  among  the  great 
public  utilities. 

Professor  Bell  had  demonstrated  that  two  people  could  talk  to  each  other  from 
connected  telephones  for  a  considerable  distance.  In  order  to  be  of  commercial 
value,  it  was  necessary  to  establish  an  intercommunicating  system  in  which  each 
telephone  could  be  connected  with  every  other  telephone  in  the  system.  This  has 
been  accomplished  through  the  invention  of  the  multiple  switchboard  and  a  great 
number  of  inventions  and  improvements  in  all  the  apparatus  used  in  the  transmission 
of  speech. 

But  it  was  an  unexplored  field  into  which  the  telephone  pioneers  so  courageously 
plunged.  There  were  no  beaten  paths,  and  the  way  was  beset  with  unknown  perils; 
there  was  no  experience  to  guide.  A  vast  amount  of  educational  work  had  to  be 
done  before  a  skeptical  public  would  accept  the  telephone  at  its  true  value,  yet 
courage  and  persistency  triumphed.  Discoveries  and  inventions  followed  scarcely 
less  important  than  Professor  Bell's  original  discovery. 


THE  STORY  IN  THE  TELEPHONE 


221 


SECTIONAL     VIEW   OF  A 
TELEPHONE       BUILDING 

A  TYPICAL  AMERICAN  CENTRAL  OFFICE  BUILDING,  SHOWING  THE  EFFICIENT  ARRANGE- 

MENT   OF   THE   VARIOUS    DEPARTMENTS 


222 


THE  STORY  IN  THE  TELEPHONE 


That  the  United  States  has  from  the  beginning  far  outstripped  the  rest  of  the 
civilized  world  in  the  growth  of  the  telephone  is  shown  by  comparison. 

In  all  Great  Britain  there  are  but  700,000  telephones  as  against  10,000,000 
in  the  United  States.  France  has  slightly  more  than  half  as  many  as  Greater  New 
York.  In  Germany  the  telephone  development  is  only  one-fifth  of  that  of  the  United 
States.  Italy  has  not  as  many  telephones  as  San  Francisco,  and  all  Russia,  fewer 
than  Chicago.  Sweden,  Norway  and  Denmark  show  a  higher  telephone  develop- 
ment than  the  other  European  countries,  but  even  in  Denmark,  where  the  telephone 
development  is  highest,  we  find  but  3.9  telephones  per  hundred  population — less  than 
half  the  development  in  the  United  States. 

The  total  number  of  telephones  in  all  other  European  countries  is  considerably 


POLE  LINE  RUNNING  THROUGH  PRINCIPAL 
STREET  IN  AN  ITALIAN  TOWN 


A  TYPICAL  EXAMPLE  OP  AMERICAN  POLE 
LINE  CONSTRUCTION 


less  than  may  be  found  in  two  American  cities,  Chicago  and  Philadelphia;  all  of 
South  America  has  less  than  Boston,  and  the  remainder  of  the  world,  including 
Asia,  Africa  and  Oceanica,  has  less  than  the  City  of  New  York. 

American  Telephone  Practice  Superior. 

The  superior  telephone  development  in  America  is  largely  due  to  the  efficiency 
of  American  telephone  equipment  and  practice.  The  mechanical  development 
has  not  only  kept  pace  with  public  needs,  but  has  anticipated  them. 

It  is  the  practice  of  the  Bell  System,  for  example,  to  make  what  are  called 
"fundamental  development  plans,"  in  which  a  forecast  is  made  of  the  telephone 
requirements  of  each  American  city  twenty  years  ahead.  The  construction  in  each 
city  is  begun  with  these  ultimate  requirements  in  view.  Underground  conduits 
are  built,  central  offices  located  and  cables  provided  with  an  eye  to  the  future,  and 
if  these  plans  are  carried  out  important  economies  are  obtained.  If  the  plans  are 


THE  STORY  IN  THE  TELEPHONE 


223 


AMERICAN  METHOD  OP  RAISING  POLES       ONE   OF  THE   VARIED   TYPES   OP   DESK 
BY  DERRICK  WITH  POWER  FURNISHED  BY  TELEPHONES  USED  IN  FRANCE 

MOTOR-TRUCK. 


THE  STANDARD  AMERICAN  DESK  TELEPHONE     TILE  CONDUITS  USED  IN  AMERICAN  UNDER- 
GROUND CONSTRUCTION 


224 


THE  STORY  IN  THE  TELEPHONE 


abandoned,  the  loss  may  be  very  great.  Furthermore,  there  are  sure  to  be  times 
when  the  service  will  be  interrupted  and  seriously  impaired  if  such  plans  for  the 
future  are  not  made  and  consistently  carried  out. 

It  is  characteristic  of  the  best  telephone  management  that  while  it  cannot 
always  perfectly  forecast  the  direction  of  immediate  growth,  it  should  be  built  far 
enough  ahead  of  present  requirements  to  have  a  pair  of  wires  ready  for  each  new 
customer.  The  fact  that  New  York  and  other  large  American  cities  have  a  con- 
siderable investment  in  telephone  plant  constructed  to  meet  a  prospective  demand, 


THIS  PRIVATE  SWITCHBOARD,  IN  ONE  AMERICAN  HOTEL,  is  LARGER  THAN  MANY  A 
SWITCHBOARD  ABOARD,  WHICH  SERVES  A  WHOLE  CITY 

is  the  price  which  must  be  paid  by  any  telephone  management  which  really  supplies 
the  wants  of  the  American  people.  Every  additional  subscriber  that  is  connected 
with  the  system,  requires  sooner  or  later  an  outlay  of  new  capital' for  his  propor- 
tionate share  of  the  whole  plant,  including  equipment,  wires,  poles,  cables,  switch- 
boards and  real  estate.  In  America  the  new  subscriber  finds  his  need  anticipated 
and  the  facilities  provided. 

It  is  characteristic  of  private  management  that  plans  can  be  made  for  the 
future  with  reasonable  assurance  that  the  necessary  funds  will  not  be  arbitrarily 
withheld,  or  that  the  work  of  the  past  will  not  be  ruthlessly  cast  aside. 

Another  factor  of  telephone  service  in  America  is  promptness.  Local  connec- 
tions are  made  in  a  few  seconds.  In  the  case  of  interurban  and  long-distance  calls, 
to  prevent  the  long  waiting  for  a  turn,  which  abroad  sometimes  is  a  matter  of  hours, 


THE  STORY  IN  THE  TELEPHONE 


225 


the  American  engineer  provides  enough  long-distance  trunks,  so  that,  except  in  cases 
of  accident,  customers  at  the  busiest  times  of  the  day  are  connected  with  distant 
points  without  delay. 

The  First  Transcontinental  Line. 

The  opening  of  the  first  transcontinental  line  between  New  York  and  San 
Francisco  on  January  25,  1915,  was  an  epoch-making  event  in  telephone  history. 
The  line  is  3,400  miles  long.  It  crosses  thirteen  states;  it  is  carried  on  130,000  poles. 
Four  hard-drawn  copper  wires,  .165  of  an  inch  in  diameter,  run  side  by  side  over 
the  entire  distance,  establishing  two  physical  and  one  phantom  circuit.  The  ordinary 


THIS  PICTUHE  SHOWS  THE  DIFFICULTIES  ENCOUNTEEED  IN  HAULING  POLES  IN  A  MOUNTAINOUS 
SECTION  ALONG  THE  TRANSCONTINENTAL  LINE  OF  THE  BELL  SYSTEM 

telephone  connection  consists  of  two  wires  technically  called  a  telephone  circuit, 
each  wire  constituting  one  "side"  of  the  circuit.  A  phantom  circuit  is  a  circuit 
superimposed  on  two  ordinary  circuits  by  so  connecting  the  two  wires  or  "sides" 
of  each  ordinary  circuit  that  they  can  be  used  as  one  side  of  the  phantom  circuit. 
In  this  way  three  practical  talking  circuits  can  be  obtained  from  four  wires.  One 
mile  of  single  wire  used  in  the  transcontinental  line  weighs  435  pounds,  the  weight 
of  the  wires  in  the  entire  line  being  5,920,000  pounds,  or  2,960  tons. 

In  addition  to  the  transmission  wires,  each  circuit  uses  some  13,600  miles  of 
fine  hair-like  insulated  wire  .004  of  an  inch  in  diameter  in  its  loading  coils. 

It  was,  perhaps,  little  more  difficult  to  string  wires  from  Denver  to  San  Fran- 
cisco than  from  New  York  to  Denver,  but  the  actual  construction  of  the  line  was 
the  least  of  the  telephone  engineer's  troubles.  His  real  problem  was  to  make  the 
line  "talk,"  to  send  something  3,000  miles  with  a  breath  as  the  motive  power. 
In  effect,  the  voyage  of  the  voice  across  the  continent  is  instantaneous;  if  its  speed 


220  THE  STORY  IN  THE  TELEPHONE 


should  be  accurately  measured,  a  fifteenth  of  a  second  would  probably  be  nearly 
exact.  In  other  words,  a  message  flying  across  the  continent  on  the  new  trans- 
continental line,  travels,  not  at  the  rate  of  1,160  feet  per  second,  which  is  the  old 
stagecoach  speed  of  sound,  but  at  56,000  miles  per  second.  If  it  were  possible  for 
sound  to  carry  that  far,  a  "Hello"  uttered  in  New  York  and  traveling  through  the 
air  without  the  aid  of  wires  and  electricity  would  not  reach  San  Francisco  until  four 
hours  later.  The  telephone  not  only  transmits  speech,  but  transmits  it  thousands 
of  times  faster  than  its  own  natural  speed. 

But  while  the  telephone  is  breaking  speech  records,  it  must  also  guarantee  safe 
delivery  of  these  millions  of  little  passengers  it  carries  every  few  minutes  in  the  way 
of  sound  waves  created  at  the  rate  of  2,100  a  second.  There  must  be  no  jostling 
or  crowding.  These  tiny  waves,  thousands  and  thousands  of  varying  shapes,  which 
are  made  by  the  human  voice,  and  each  as  irregular  and  as  different  from  the  other 
as  the  waves  of  the  sea,  must  not  tumble  over  each  other  or  get  into  each  other's 
way,  but  must  break  upon  the  Pacific  coast  as  they  started  at  the  Atlantic,  or  all 
the  line  fails  and  the  millions  of  dollars  spent  upon  it  have  been  thrown  away.  And 
in  all  this  line,  if  just  one  pin-point  of  construction  is  not  as  it  should  be,  if  there  is 
one  iota  of  imperfection,  the  miles  of  line  are  useless  and  the  currents  and  waves 
and  sounds  and  words  do  not  reach  the  end  as  they  should.  It  is  such  tremendous 
trifles,  not  the  climbing  of  mountains  and  the  bridging  of  chasms,  that  make  the 
transcontinental  line  one  of  the  wonders  of  the  ages. 

The  engineer  in  telephony  cannot  increase  his  motive  power.  A  breath  against 
a  metal  disk  changes  air  waves  into  electrical  currents,  and  these  electrical  currents, 
millions  of  which  are  required  for  a  single  conversation,  must  be  carried  across  the 
continent  and  produce  the  same  sound  waves  in  San  Francisco  as  were  made  in 
New  York.  Here  is  a  task  so  fine  as  to  be  gigantic.  It  was  to  nurse  and  coax  this 
baby  current  of  electricity  3,000  miles  across  the  continent,  under  rivers  and  over 
mountains,  through  the  blistering  heat  of  the  alkali  plains  and  the  cold  of  snow- 
capped peaks,  that  has  taken  the  time  and  thought  and  labor  of  the  brightest  minds 
of  the  scientific  world. 

This  great  problem  in  transmission  was  due  to  the  cumulative  effect  of  improve- 
ments, great  and  small,  in  telephone,  transmitter,  line,  cable,  switchboard  and  every 
other  piece  of  apparatus  and  plant  required  for  the  transmission  of  speech. 

The  opening  of  the  transcontinental  telephone  line  has  been  followed  by  the 
extension  of  " extreme  distance"  transmission  into  all  the  states  of  the  Union,  by 
applying  these  new  improvements  to  the  plant  of  the  Bell  System.  It  is  now  pos- 
sible to  talk  from  points  in  any  one  state  to  some  points  in  every  other  state  of  the 
Union,  while  over  a  very  large  part  of  the  territory  covered  by  the  Bell  System,  it 
is  possible  for  any  subscriber  to  talk  to  any  other  subscriber,  regardless  of  distance. 

Wireless  Speech  Transmission. 

During  the  year  1915  very  notable  development  in  radio-telephony,  the  trans- 
mission of  speech  without  wires,  was  made. 

On  April  4th  the  Bell  telephone  engineers  were  successful  in  transmitting  speech 
from  a  radio  station  at  Montauk  Point,  on  Long  Island,  to  Wilmington,  Del. 

On  the  27th  of  August,  with  the  Bell  apparatus,  installed  by  permission  of  the 
Navy  Department  at  the  Arlington,  Va.,  radio  station,  speech  was  successfully 
transmitted  from  Arlington,  Va.,  to  the  Navy  wireless  station  equipped  with  Bell 
apparatus  at  the  Isthmus  of  Panama. 

On  September  29th  speech  was  successfully  transmitted  by  wire  from  the 
headquarters  of  the  company  at  15  Dey  Street,  New  York,  to  the  radio  station  at 
Arlington,  Va.,  and  thence  by  radio  or  wireless  telephony  across  the  continent  to  the 
radio  station  at  Mare  Island  Navy  Yard,  Cal. 


THE  STORY  IN  THE  TELEPHONE  227 


SETTING  POLES  ACROSS  A  SHALLOW  LAKE  IN  NEVADA  DURING  THE  CONSTRUCTION  OF 
THE  TRANSCONTINENTAL  LINE  OF  THF  ^EU*  SYSTEM 


228 


THE  STORY  IN  THE  TELEPHONE 


On  the  next  morning,  at  about  one  o'clock,  Washington  time,  wireless  telephone 
communication  was  established  between  Arlington,  Va.,  and  Pearl  Harbor  in  the 
Hawaiian  Islands,  where  the  Bell  engineer,  together  with  United  States  naval  officers, 
distinctly  heard  words  spoken  into  the  apparatus  at  Arlington. 

On  October  22d,  from  the  Arlington  tower  in  Virginia,  speech  was  transmitted 
across  the  Atlantic  Ocean  to  the  Eiffel  Tower  at  Paris,  where  the  Bell  engineers,  in 
company  with  French  military  officers,  heard  the  words  spoken  at  Arlington. 

On  the  same  day,  when  speech  was  being  transmitted  by  the  Bell  apparatus 
at  Arlington  to  the  engineers  and  the  French  military  officers  at  the  Eiffel  Tower 
in  Paris,  the  telephone  company's  representative  at  Pearl  Harbor,  Hawaii,  together 


BY  MEANS  OP  THE  UNIVERSAL  BELL  SYSTEM  THE  NATION  MAY  BE  PROMPTLY  ORGANIZED 
FOR  UNITED  ACTION  IN  ANY  GREAT  NATIONAL  MOVEMENT 

with  an  officer  of  the  United  States  Navy,  heard  the  words  spoken  from  Arlington 
to  Paris. 

It  is  believed  that  wireless  telephony  will  form  a  most  important  adjunct  and 
extension  to  the  existing  schemes  of  communication.  By  its  means  communication 
can  be  established  between  points  where  it  is  impracticable  to  extend  wires.  For 
many  reasons  wireless  telephony  can  never  take  the  place  of  wire  systems,  but  it 
may  be  expected  to  supplement  them  in  a  useful  manner.  Wireless  telephone 
systems  are  subject  to  serious  interference  from  numerous  conditions,  atmospheric 
and  others.  For  many  uses  the  fact  that  anyone  suitably  equipped  can  listen  in 
on  a  wireless  telephone  talk  would  be  a  serious  limitation  to  its  use. 

The  Mobilization  of  Communication. 

Besides  these  radio  experiments,  a  demonstration  has  been  given  of  the  avail- 
ability of  the  Bell  System  and  its  wonderful  potentiality  in  case  of  an  emergency 
which  would  require  quick  and  satisfactory  intercommunication  between  the  different 


THE  STORY   IN  THE  TELEPHONE 229 

departments  of  the  government  and  its  scattered  stations  and  officers  throughout 
the  whole  country. 

From  4  P.  M.,  May  6,  to  8  A.  M.,  May  8, 1916,  the  United  States  Navy  Department 
and  the  American  Telephone  and  Telegraph  Company  co-operated  in  a  general 
mobilization  of  the  forces  of  communication.  It  was  a  test  of  what  could  be  done 
in  a  sudden  military  emergency,  and  was  gratuitously  undertaken  by  the  company 
at  the  request  of  the  Secretary  of  the  Navy. 

It  was  a  sort  of  war  game  that  brought  into  play  the  latest  scientific  develop- 
ments of  telephone  and  telegraph  communication,  by  wire  and  by  wireless,  and 
demonstrated  an  efficiency  that  has  not  been  attained  in  any  other  country. 

For  some  time  the  officers  of  the  United  States  Navy  had  been  working  together 
with  the  engineers  of  the  Bell  System  in  the  study  of  wire  and  wireless  communic4- 
tions,  and  the  Navy  Department  had  permitted  the  telephone  engineers  to  use  its 
towers  for  long-distance  wireless  telephone  experiments. 

So,  in  the  latest  demonstration,  the  land  towers  of  the  navy  were  utilized  in 
connection  with  a  wireless  telephone  installation  on  the  U.  S.  S.  "New  Hampshire," 
and  Captain  Chandler,  cruising  off  shore,  talked  directly  with  the  Secretary's  office 
in  Washington. 

For  the  time  being  the  operating  forces  of  the  telephone  company  all  over  the 
country  were  placed  at  the  disposal  of  Captain  W.  H.  G.  Bullard,  Chief  of  the  Bureau 
of  Communications,  and  General  Superintendent  of  Plant  F.  A.  Stevenson,  of  the 
American  Telephone  and  Telegraph  Company,  was  assigned  as  his  aide.  While 
all  the  facilities  of  the  Bell  System  were  available,  only  about  53,000  miles  of  wire 
were  necessary  to  connect  all  the  navy  yards  and  stations  for  telephonic  and  telegraphic 
communication. 

The  successful  demonstration  showed  that  in  case  of  any  trouble  requiring  any 
such  service,  because  of  the  central  control  of  the  Bell  System,  the  government  could 
have  ready-made  at  its  immediate  disposal  a  plant,  equipment  and  operating  staff 
which,  for  completeness  and  efficiency,  would  not  be  possible  in  any  other  way. 


Why  do  They  Call  Them  "  Fiddler-Crabs  "? 

There  is  one  member  of  the  crab  family  for  which  the  Latin  name  is  Gelasimus, 
which  means  "laughable."  He  certainly  is  appropriately  named,  for  he  is  a  very 
queer  little  fellow.  The  male  has  one  claw  of  immense  size,  the  other  being  quite 
small.  The  big  claw  is  brightly  colored,  and  when  he  runs  he  waves  it  about  as  if 
he  were  energetically  beckoning,  or  playing  some  very  stirring  tune  on  a  violin; 
hence  he  is  often  known  as  a  "Calling-crab"  or  a  "Fiddler-crab." 

Fiddler-crabs  inhabit  various  parts  of  the  world,  and  are  usually  found  in  large 
numbers  on  muddy  or  sandy  flats  left  dry  by  the  tide,  where  they  may  be  seen 
hurrying  over  the  sand  or  peering  out  of  their  holes,  into  which  they  immediately 
vanish  when  alarmed.  The  holes,  which  usually  are  about  a  foot  deep,  are  made 
by  the  crab  persistently  digging  up  and  carrying  away  little  masses  of  mud  or  sand. 
When  he  is  doing  this  the  crab  presents  a  very  funny  appearance.  Scraping  up  a 
quantity  of  sand  into  a  little  heap,  he  grasps  it  with  three  of  the  legs  on  one  side 
and  hurries  away  with  it  to  some  little  distance.  Having  deposited  his  load,  he 
raises  his  eyes,  which  he  can  do  quite  effectively,  as  they  are  situated  at  the  end  of 
very  long,  slender  stalks,  peers  curiously  around,  and  scuttles  back  to  the  hole  for 
another  load  of  sand. 

How  Far  can  a  Powerful  Searchlight  Send  Its  Rays? 

Searchlights  have  recently  been  made  capable  of  being  seen  nearly  a  hundred 
miles  away.  Such  lights  are  very  valuable  for  signaling  purposes  in  time  of  war, 


230  HOW  FAR  CAN  A  SEARCHLIGHT  SEND  ITS  RAYS 


WHY  ARE  WINDOWS  BROKEN  BY  EXPLOSIONS      231 

and  they  are  also  much  used  on  warships,  enabling  the  officers  to  detect  the  approach 
of  an  enemy  in  the  dark  and  to  guard  against  torpedo  boats. 

We  are  all  familiar  with  the  less  powerful  ones  which  are  universally  used  on 
automobiles  for  night  driving  and  in  a  multitude  of  other  every-day  practices.  The 
illustration  shows  a  battery  of  powerful  searchlights,  the  use  of  which  furnished  some 
very  effective  displays  during  the  Panama-Pacific  Exposition  at  San  Francisco  in 
1915. 

Searchlights  are  ordinarily  electric  arc  lights  of  great  candle-power,  arranged 
with  a  parabolic  reflector  so  that  the  rays  are  sent  almost  wholly  in  one  direct  line, 
forming  a  path  of  light  which  may  be  projected  for  miles. 

What  Started  the  Habit  of  Touching  Glasses  Before  Drinking? 

Just  as  athletes  shake  hands  before  the  beginning  of  a  contest  today,  the  people 
who  fought  duels  in  the  olden  days  used  to  pause  before  their  fighting  long  enough 
to  each  drink  a  glass  of  wine  furnished  by  their  friends.  In  order  to  make  sure  that 
no  attempt  was  made  to  forestall  the  results  of  the  duel  by  poisoning  the  wine  in 
either  cup,  they  developed  the  habit  of  pouring  part  of  the  contents  of  each  glass  into 
the  other,  so  that  if  either  contestant  was  poisoned  the  other  would  be  too. 

This  habit  has  continued  up  to  the  present  tune,  although  there  is  no  thought 
given  now  to  the  danger  of  poison,  and  in  the  present  day  the  ceremony  of  actually 
pouring  the  drink  from  one  glass  to  another  has  been  omitted,  merely  the  motion, 
as  if  to  touch  the  glasses,  sufficing  as  an  expression  of  friendliness  and  good  will. 

Touching  glasses  together  in  drinking,  preparatory  to  a  confidential  talk,  has 
come  to  be  nicknamed  " hob-nobbing"  because  of  the  equipment  incidental  to 
that  action  years  ago.  A  "hob"  was  the  flat  part  of  the  open  hearth  where  water 
and  spirits  were  warmed;  and  the  small  table,  at  which  people  sat  when  so  engaged, 
was  called  a  "nob." 

Why  are  Windows  Broken  by  Explosions? 

When  the  large  cannons  in  the  forts  on  our  coast  are  discharged  during  target 
practice,  there  are  usually  a  lot  of  windows  broken  in  the  nearby  houses.  In  Jersey 
City,  N.  J.,  several  freight  cars  and  boats  loaded  with  dynamite  and  ammunition 
full  of  high  explosives  furnished  the  power  for  an  explosion  which,  in  July,  1916, 
broke  considerably  over  a  hundred  thousand  dollars  worth  of  windows  in  the  lower 
part  of  New  York  City. 

The  force  of  an  explosion,  whatever  its  source,  throws  back  the  air  in  huge  waves, 
very  much  like  the  waves  of  the  ocean,  and  whatever  they  come  in  contact  with 
must  have  a  sort  of  a  tug-of-war  with  them,  the  weaker  side  being  crumpled  up  and 
pushed  back  by  the  other.  Broad  expanses  of  glass,  unprotected  and  without  any 
support,  except  at  the  extreme  edges,  present  an  easy  mark  for  air  waves,  there- 
fore, and  the  amount  of  damage  done  to  windows  by  explosions  is  usually  only 
limited  by  the  power  of  the  explosives  which  produce  the  force  of  air  waves. 

The  earth  beneath,  and  the  roof  and  walls  of  a  building  above,  all  receive  the 
effects  of  these  air  waves  in  exactly  the  same  way  as  do  windows,  and  the  resulting 
disaster  is  in  direct  proportion  to  their  resisting  capacity  as  against  the  pressure 
caused  by  the  explosion.  Many  striking  examples  of  the  power  of  explosives  have 
been  accidentally  furnished  of  late,  in  the  course  of  making  munitions  for  the 
European  war. 

What  does  the  Expression  "  Showing  the  White  Feather  "  Come  From? 

We  say  people  "show  the  white  feather"  when  they  display  cowardice,  because 
a  white  feather  in  a  bird  marks  a  cross  breed,  and  it  is  not  found  on  a  fighting 
game-cock. 


The  Story  in  Elevators  and  Escalators 


Going  up  and  down  stairs  is  a  duty  every  man,  woman  and  child  finds  it  neces- 
sary to  perform  daily  and  in  many  cases  hourly,  and  some  means  for  doing  this  is 
necessary  in  every  modern  household.  Even  in  the  old-time  one-story  house,  steps 
from  the  outside  to  the  inside  were  usually  necessary,  and  when  the  two  or  more 
storied  houses  came  into  use  the  stairway  became  an  indispensable  feature .  In 
modern  times  the  art  of  building  has  had  such  an  upward  trend  that  edifices  looming 
far  into  the  air,  hotels,  stores,  apartment  houses,  office  buildings,  etc.,  have  come 
into  use,  one  notable  specimen,  the  Woolworth  building  in  New  York,  towering 


IN   ORDER    TO    ASCEND 

MORE  EASILY,  MAN  DE- 
VISED THE  STAIRWAY,  FROM 
WHICH,  IN  TURN,  WAS  DE- 
VELOPED THE  ESCALATOR,  IN 
ORDER  TO  FURTHER  ELIMI- 
NATE PHYSICAL  EFFORT 


PRIMITIVE  MAN  PULLED 
HIMSELF  UP  A  LADDER  WHEN 
HE  WANTED  TO  Go  FROM 
ONE  LEVEL  TO  ANOTHER 


upwards  to  fifty-four  stories  in  height.  This  upward  tendency  has  rendered  the 
elevator,  or  lifting  apparatus,  an  indispensable  necessity,  alike  for  passengers  and 
freight,  and  it  has  been  installed  abundantly  in  all  our  large  cities. 

The  elevator  is  not  exactly  a  new  idea.  Its  pioneer  form  may  be  traced  back 
to  the  Middle  Ages,  when  heavy  weights  were  lifted  by  aid  of  an  apparatus  worked 
by  hand  power.  But  it  was  not  until  well  on  into  the  nineteenth  century  that  the 
steam-power  elevator  came  into  service.  The  first  example  is  said  to  have  been  pro- 
duced by  Elisha  Graves  Otis,  who  applied  steam  power  to  an  elevating  machine  in 
a  little  shop  at  Yonkers,  on  the  banks  of  the  Hudson,  New  York.  A  few  years 
later,  at  the  International  Exhibition  of  1853  in  New  York,  he  displayed  the  first 
elevator  with  a  safety  device  to  prevent  the  car  from  falling  in  case  of  a  broken 
cable. 

The  elevator  was  then  a  novelty.  It  has  long  since  grown  into  a  necessity. 
It  is  to  be  seen  in  all  hotels  and  high  buildings,  and  the  art  of  getting  up  stairs  has 
in  very  many  cases  changed  into  that  of  being  lifted  up  by  a  moving  car  in  an 
enclosed  shaft  or  cage.  The  steam  elevator,  at  first  used,  has  now  in  great  measure 
been  replaced  by  the  electric  elevator,  the  first  moved  by  an  electric  motor  being 


"•Illustrations  by  courtesy  of  the  Otis  Elevator  Co. 


(232) 


THE  STORY  IN  ELEVATORS  AND  ESCALATORS  233 

the  Otis  elevator  installed  in  the  Demarest  Building,  New  York,  in  1889.     This 
is  still  in  active  use. 

The  first  electric  elevators  were  confined  to  the  drum  type  of  machine,  these 
having  a  grooved  drum  around  which  the  hoisting  cables  were  wound,  the  drum  being 
revolved  through  worm  gearing  by  an  electric  motor.  But  the  erection  of  buildings, 
ranging  from  200  to  700  feet  in  height  has  put  this  type  of  traction  out  of  business 
on  account  of  the  great  size  of  drums  required  and  the  necessary  slowness  of  motion. 
It  has  been  replaced  by  the  electric  traction  elevator.  In  this  the  hoisting  cables 
from  which  the  car  is  suspended  have  at  the  other  end  a  counterweight  and  pass 
around  driving  sheaves  in  place  of  a  drum.  This,  in  its  latest  form  known  as  the 
gearless  traction  elevator,  does  away  with  all  intricate  machinery,  and  yields  a 
machine  moving  with  equal  speed  whatever  the  height- 


AN  ELEVATOR  OF  THE  MIDDLE  AGES 
History  tells  us  this  form  of  elevator  was  used  in  monasteries  for  hoisting  passengers  and  supplies. 


(234)  ELEVATOR  INSTALLATION  IN  THE  WOOLWORTH  BUILDING,  NEW  YORK 


THE  STORY  IN  ELEVATORS  AND  ESCALATORS  235 


To  obviate  danger  from  accidents,  safety  devices  are  installed  for  gripping 
the  rails  in  case  of  the  car  attaining  excessive  speed.  Another  feature  of  security 
is  the  oil  cushion  buffer.  One  of  these  is  placed  in  the  hoistway  under  the  car  and 
one  under  the  counterweight,  they  being  capable  of  bringing  a  car  to  rest  from  full 
speed  without  discomfort  to 
those  in  the  car.  The  oil  in 
the  buffer  is  driven  by  the 
impact  of  the  car  from  one 
chamber  of  the  buffer  to 
another,  but  this  is  made  to 
take  place  at  a  fixed  rate  of 
retardation,  the  oil  acting  as  a 
liquid  cushion  which  stops  the 
car  gradually  and  without 
shock. 

To  do  business  in  the 
modern  lofty  building  with- 
out the  aid  of  elevators  (or 
lifts,  as  they  are  called  in 
England)  is  today  out  of  the 
question,  while  the  great 
grain-transporting  edifices  in 
cities  in  which  our  annual 
crops  are  lifted  and  lowered, 
are  known  by  the  specific 
name  of  elevators.  There  is, 
however,  another  means  of 
getting  up  and  down  stairs 
which  is  coming  somewhat 
rapidly  into  use  and  in  which 
the  old  stairway  is  restored. 
It  is  one  in  w^hich  the  stair 
itself  does  the  moving  instead 
of  the  passengers  upon  it. 
This  new  and  interesting  de- 
vice is  known  as  an  escalator. 


The  Escalator  ^TEAM-DRIVEN  ELEVATOR   OF  EARLY  DATE 

The  earliest   way  to  get 
upward  from  the  ground  was 

that  adopted  by  climbing  animals  in  clambering  up  tree  trunks,  and  by  man  him- 
self in  ''shinning"  up  trees  by  aid  of  his  arms  and  legs.  This  was  followed  by  the 
plank  leading  from  a  lower  to  a  higher  level,  by  the  ladder,  and  finally  by  the  stair- 
way. In  our  days  the  stairway  has  been  put  on  a  set  of  revolving  wheels  and 
moves  upward  itself,  carrying  its  passengers  with  no  need  on  their  part  to  use  their 
feet.  This  simple  but  effective  device  is  known  as  the  escalator. 

It  is  a  very  useful  contrivance  for  tired  shoppers  needing  to  make  their  way 
from  floor  to  floor  in  the  great  department  stores,  for  travelers  on  subway  or  elevated 
railways,  for  large  mills,  theaters,  or  other  places  where  easy  getting  up  and  down 
stairs  is  necessary.  The  escalator  is  a  simple  device.  No  intricate  machinery  is 
needed.  It  is  so  arranged  as  to  be  always  going,  traveling  upwards  or  downwards, 
and  returning  out  of  sight  below.  It  has  been  called  "an  elevator  with  the  doors 
always  open."  It  is  capable  of  carrying  all  the  passengers  who  can  crowd  upon  it, 


236     THE  STORY  IN  ELEVATORS  AND  ESCALATORS 


I 

4 

5 


THE  STORY  IN  ELEVATORS  AND  ESCALATORS  237 


ELECTRIC  DUMBWAITER  INSTALLA- 
TION WITH  MACHINE  IN  BASEMENT  , 
SHOWING  CALL  BUTTONS 


Mii 


tl 


A  COMPLETE  INSTALLATION 
OP  A  2  :  1  ELECTRIC  TRACTION 
PASSENGER  ELEVATOR,  SHOWING 
MACHINE  AND  CONTROLLER  AT 
TOP  OF  HATCHWAY 

This  elevator  is  used  where 
the  slower  speeds  are  required 
as  in  department  stores. 


238     THE  STORY  IN  ELEVATORS  AND  ESCALATORS 


ESCALATOR  OR  MOVING  STAIRWAY  AT  SIXTH  AVENUE  AND  THIRTY-THIRD 
STREET  STATION  OF  ELEVATED  RAILWAY,  NEW  YORK  CITY 


IHHHi 


A  DUPLEX  ESCALATOR  OF  THE  CLEAT  TYPE  IN  A  DEPARTMENT  STORE 
This  type  of  escalator  makes  use  of  hard  wood  cleats  in  place  of  steps. 


THE  STORY  IN  ELEVATORS  AND  ESCALATORS     239 


stepping  on  or  off  at  the  bottom  or  top,  it  being  estimated  that  more  than  10,000 
people  an  hour  can  be  thus  moved. 

The  Cleat  Escalator. 

In  the  original  type  of  escalator  the  steps  flatten  out  into  a  level  platform  at 


AN  ESCALATOR  OR  MOVING  STAIRWAY  FOR  THE  USE  OF 
EMPLOYEES  IN  A  LARGE  WORSTED  MILL 


top  and  bottom,  easy  to  step  on  and  off,  and  divide 
into  regular  steps  as  they  climb  upward,  passen- 
gers in  a  hurry  being  able  to  hasten  their  speed 
by  walking  at^the  same  time  that  they  are  carried. 
Another  type  is  that  known  as  the  cleat  escalator. 
In  this  there  are  no  steps,  it  being  composed  of 
hardwood  cleats  moving  in  longitudinal  ridges  and 
grooves,  there  being  a  handrail  on  either  side  mov- 
ing at  the  same  speed.  The  platform  glides 
through  the  prongs  of  a  comb  at  the  lower  level 
and  journeys  upward  at  a  moderate  speed.  At 
the  upper  level  it  disappears  through  a  similar 
comb  and  returns  out  of  sight.  The  passengers 
slide  off  upon  the  prongs  of  the  comb  at  the  top 
and  land  without  jar  or  shock.  Both  these  types 
of  escalators  can  be  made  to  move  UD  or  down  by 
aid  of  a  swinging  switch,  or  two  of  them  can  be 
placed  side  by  side,  one  moving  upward  and  the 
other  downward. 

The  Moving  Platform. 

A  device  acting  on  the  same  principle  is  the 
moving  platform,  with  the  difference  that  this 


A  CLEAT  TYPE  ESCALATOR, 
SHOWING  THE  HARDWOOD  CLEATS 
USED  IN  PLACE  OF  STEPS 


240     THE  STORY  IN  ELEVATORS  AND  ESCALATORS 


A  GRAVITY  CONVEYOR  OP  THE  SINGLE  SPIRAL  OPEN  TYPE 
For  the  quick  and  safe  conveyance  of  heavy  goods  from  upper  to  lower  levels. 


THE  STORY  IN  ELEVATORS  AND  ESCALATORS  241 

may  be  of  indefinite  length  and  act  as  a  sort  of  railway  for  carrying  passengers 
from  place  to  place.  The  passenger  steps  from  a  sideway  at  rest  to  one  in  mod- 
erate motion,  and  from  this  to  a  second  one  moving  more  rapidly,  and  in  this 
way  can  be  carried  horizontally  at  a  fair  rate  of  speed.  On  reaching  his  station  he 
has  but  to  step  back  on  the  slower  platform  and  from  this  to  the  moveless  side- 
way.  The  pioneer  example  of  this  contrivance  was  installed  on  a  long  pier  leading 
into  Lake  Michigan  at  the  Chicago  Exposition  of  1893,  and  plans  for  putting  it  into 
practical  use  in  various  cities  have  been  entertained.  None  of  these,  however,  have 
yet  been  put  into  effect.  Certain  drawbacks,  possibly  that  of  cost  of  installation 
and  operation,  has  served  as  a  hindrance. 


What  Happens  when  Animals  Hibernate? 

We  have  all  heard  of  certain  animals  sleeping  through  the  long  winter  months 
and  most  of  us  have  probably  wondered  what  happens  to  them  when  they  do  this. 

This  hiding  away  for  a  long  sleep,  or  hibernation,  as  it  is  called,  commences  when 
the  food  of  the  animal  begins  to  get  scarce,  and  the  length  and  depth  of  the  sleep 
depends  on  the  habit  and  constitution  of  the  animal. 

Bats,  bears,  some  animals  of  the  rodent  order,  such  as  the  porcupine,  the 
dormouse,  some  squirrels,  etc.,  all  the  animals  belonging  to  the  classes  of  Amphibia 
and  Reptilia,  such  as  tortoises,  lizards,  snakes,  frogs,  etc.,  and  many  species  of  mollusks 
and  insects,  hibernate  more  or  less  completely,  retiring  to  suitable  places  of  conceal- 
ment — the  bat  to  dark  caves,  the  hedgehog  to  fern-brakes,  snakes  to  holes  in  trees,  etc. 

During  hibernation  there  is  a  great  decrease  of  heat  in  the  bodies  of  the  animals, 
the  temperature  sometimes  sinking  to  40°  or  even  20°  F.,  or  in  general  to  a  point  a 
little  above  that  of  the  surrounding  atmosphere.  The  respiration  as  well  as  the 
pulsation  of  the  heart  is  exceedingly  slow,  and  the  irritability  of  the  animal  often  so 
low  that  in  some  cases  it  can  be  awakened  only  by  strong  electric  shocks. 

With  frogs  and  amphibious  reptiles  "the  dormant  state  is  very  common,  and  if 
the  temperature  is  kept  low  by  artificial  means  they  may  remain  dormant  for  years. 

The  term  "aestivation"  has  been  used  to  describe  a  similar  condition  into  which 
certain  animals,  such  as  serpents  and  crocodiles,  in  tropical  countries  pass  during  the 
hottest  months  of  the  year. 

How  do  Peanuts  Get  in  the  Ground? 

Peanuts  are  really  the  seeds  or  pods  of  a  plant  belonging  to  the  family  called 
the  earthnut  in  Great  Britain,  the  nuts  there  being  used  chiefly  to  fatten  swine. 
The  peanut-stand  so  commonly  seen  on  street  corners  here  is  kept  well  supplied  by 
the  extensive  cultivation  of  peanuts  in  the  United  States,  mainly  in  the  South,  and 
in  several  tropical  countries. 

As  most  people  have  discovered,  the  nuts  have  a  much  more  agreeable  taste 
after  being  roasted.  They  also  yield  an  oil  which  is  often  used  for  olive  oil,  and 
very  good  "peanut  butter"  is  now  made  by  grinding  them  up  and  mixing  them 
with  oil. 

The  peanut  plant,  or  groundnut  as  it  is  also  called,  has  a  hairy  stem  and  the 
leaves  usually  grow  in  sets  of  two  pairs  each,  on  the  extreme  ead  of  each  little  branch- 
stem.  The  pod  or  nut  is  situated  at  the  end  of  a  separate  stalk,  which  is  longer 
than  the  leaf-stems,  this  stalk  having  the  peculiarity,  after  flowering,  of  bending 
down  and  pushing  the  fruit  into  the  earth.  After  the  peanuts  have  reached  their 
full  growth,  they  are  dug  up  very  much  in  the  same  way  as  potatoes,  a  machine 
potato  digger  now  being  extensively  used  for  this  purpose. 
i* 


242         HOW  DO  PEANUTS  GET  IN  THE  GROUND 


MACHINE  POTATO  DIGGER  DIGGING  PEANUTS 


PICKING  PEANUTS  BY  HAND 


HOW  DID  YOUR  STATE  GET  ITS  NAME  243 

How  did  Your  State  Get  Its  Name? 

Alabama  is  named  after  the  Indian  word  which  means  "Here  we  rest;"  Alaska 
comes  from  the  Eskimo  word  "Alakshak"  or  "Alayeska"  and  means  "The  main 
land;"  Arizona  is  the  result  of  the  Indian  word  "Arizonac,"  meaning  "small  springs" 
or  "few  springs;"  and  Arkansas  is  sort  of  a  mixture  of  the  Indian  "Kansas,"  which 
means  "smoky  water,"  and  the  French  prefix  "arc,"  meaning  "bow"  or  "bend." 

California  comes  from  the  Spanish  words  "Caliente  Fornalla,"  or  "hot  furnace;" 
Colorado,  also  from  the  Spanish  "colored,"  from  the  red  color  of  the  Colorado  River; 
and  Connecticut,  in  Indian,  means  "long  river." 

Delaware  was  named  after  Lord  De  la  Warr;  Florida  originated  from  the 
Spanish  "Pascua  de  Flores,"  which  means  "Feast  of  Flowers,"  because  it  was  dis- 
covered on  Easter  Day;  Georgia  was  called  after  King  George  II  of  England;  and 
Hawaii  is  a  native  name  peculiar  to  the  natives  there,  although  Captain  Cook  called 
it  part  of  the  "Sandwich  Islands"  after  Lord  Sandwich. 

Idaho  is  Indian,  meaning  "Gem  of  the  Mountains;"  Illinois  is  another  mixture 
of  Indian  and  French,  the  Indian  word  "illini"  and  the  French  suffix  "ois"  meaning 
"tribe  of  men:"  and  Indiana  and  Iowa  are  both  plain  Indian,  the  former  standing 
for  "Indians'  land,"  and  the  latter,  "beautiful  land." 

Kansas  and  Kentucky  are  Indian,  too,  Kansas  meaning  "smoky  water"  and 
Kentucky  "at  the  head  of  the  river,"  or  "the  dark  and  bloody  ground;"  and 
Louisiana  is  named  after  Louis  XIV  of  France. 

Maine  and  Maryland  each  come  from  abroad,  Maine  being  called  after  the 
Province  of  the  same  name  in  France,  and  Maryland  after  Queen  Henrietta  Maria 
of  England,  consort  of  Charles  I;  while  Massachusetts,  Michigan,  Minnesota,  Mis- 
sissippi and  Missouri  are  all  from  the  native  Indian  language,  meaning,  in  the  order 
in  which  they  are  given,  "place  of  great  hills,"  "fish  weir,"  "sky-tinted  water," 
"great  father  of  waters"  and  "muddy;"  and  Montana  traces  back  to  the  Latin 
word  "montanus,"  meaning  "mountainous." 

Nebraska  is  another  Indian  name,  and  means  "water  valley;"  while  Nevada 
is  Spanish,  meaning  "snow  covered;"  New  Hampshire  and  New  Jersey  are  both 
from  across  the  water,  the  former  after  Hampshire  County  in  England,  and  New 
Jersey  after  the  Island  of  Jersey  at  the  time  when  Sir  George  Carteret  was  its  Governor; 
New  York  and  both  North  and  South  Carolina  were  also  named  after  monarchs 
abroad,  New  York  after  the  Duke  of  York  in  England,  and  the  Carolinas  after 
Charles  IX  of  France;  while  North  and  South  Dakota  bring  us  back  to  the  Indian 
language  again,  meaning  "allies." 

Ohio  and  Oklahoma  are  both  Indian,  too,  Ohio  meaning  "beautiful  river," 
and  the  latter,  "Home  of  the  red  men;"  while  Oregon  is  from  the  Spanish  word 
"oregano,"  which  stands  for  the  wild  marjoram,  a  plant  abundant  on  the  coast; 
Pennsylvania  traces  back  to  the  Latin,  meaning  "Perm's  woody  land;"  the  Philippine 
Islands  come  from  the  Spanish  words  "Islas  Filipinas,"  after  King  Philip;  and 
Porto  Rico  is  also  Spanish,  from  "Puerto  Rico,"  meaning  "rich  port." 

Rhode  Island  is  called  after  the  Island  of  Rhodes;  Tennessee,  Texas  and  Utah 
are  all  Indian,  Tennessee  meaning  "river  with  the  great  bend,"  Texas  coming  from 
several  different  forms  of  very  old  Indian  language,  meaning  "friends,"  and  Utah 
after  the  tribe  by  that  name,  also  called  the  "Utes;"  Vermont  is  from  the  French, 
meaning  "green  mountains,"  and  Virginia  is  called  after  Elizabeth,  the  "Virgin 
Queen"  of  England. 

Washington  gets  its  name  from  a  good,  straight  American  source — George 
Washington;  West  Virginia  is  so  called  because  it  was  formerly  the  western  part 
of  Virginia;  and  Wisconsin  and  Wyoming  are  both  Indian,  the  former  meaning 
"gathering  of  the  waters,"  and  the  latter,  "great  plains." 


The  Story  of  Coal  Mining 

An  interesting  story  is  told  in  an  English  book  by  Edward  Cressy,  of  the  great 
coal  strike  in  1912.  Many  factories  and  workshops  had  to  close  for  want  of  fuel.  A 
workman  from  one  of  these,  on  reaching  home,  purchased  a  sack  of  coal  and  set  it  up 
against  the  back  door.  Then  he  sat  in  the  kitchen,  in  which  there  was  no  fire.  From 
time  to  time,  when  he  felt  chilly  he  got  up,  flung  the  sack  of  coal  across  his  shoulders 
and  ran  around  the  yard  until  he  became  warm.  That  was  his  way  of  saving  fuel. 
He  was  only  doing  in  his  own  fashion  what  all  engineers  and  manufacturers  are  trying 
to  do  in  other  ways  all  the  year  round. 

The  extent  to  which  all  manufacture  and  transport,  all  industry  there,  was  para- 
lyzed during  the  strike,  shows  the  complete  dependence  of  modern  life  upon  fuel.  In 
spite  of  the  fact  that  in  Great  Britain  nearly  240.000,000  tons  of  coal  are  raised  annu- 
ally, a  temporary  stoppage  of  supply  threw  all  the  ordinary  machinery  of  existence  out 
of  action  and  revealed  the  magnitude  of  the  debt  that  the  world  owes  to  those  who 
win  precious  stores  of  fuel  from  the  depths  of  the  earth. 

Probably  no  industrial  operation  excites  more  widespread  interest,  when  accorded 
publicity,  than  the  mining  of  coal,  and  that  because  of  the  dangers  which  attend  it. 
The  annual  list  of  victims  buried  beneath  a  falling  roof,  or  mangled  by  runaway  cars, 
causes  little  comment,  but  every  now  and  then  the  world  is  startled  by  an  appalling 
catastrophe  in  which  hundreds  of  men  lose  their  lives.  From  the  early  days  when 
growing  industry  demanded  more  coal,  inventors  have  been  busy  devising  all  sorts  of 
safety  appliances  for  the  miner. 

The  original  safety-lamp,  with  which  practically  everyone  is  familiar,  is  the 
parent  of  scores  of  others,  each  claiming  to  offer  some  special  advantage.  All  sorts  of 
mechanical  devices  to  prevent  overwinding — an  accident  which  would  fling  the  cage 
with  its  coal  or  human  freight  out  of  the  pit  mouth — have  been  invented,  and  every 
section  of  the  work  has  been  made  as  safe  as  human  ingenuity  and  human  skill  have 
been  able  to  make  it.  But  the  number  of  disastrous  explosions  has  not  been  materially 
reduced. 

Many  varieties  of  coal  give  off  a  gas  known  as  marsh-gas  or  fire-damp.  This  is 
inflammable  and,  when  mixed  with  air,  violently  explosive.  It  is  the  presence  of  this 
gas  that  necessitates  the  safety-lamp.  There  are  a  few  kinds  of  mines  which  evolve 
no  gas,  and  in  these  naked  lights  are  used.  But  all  mines  must  be  ventilated  by 
forcing  air  through  them  with  a  fan,  and  this  air  must  be  in  sufficient  quantity  to  keep 
the  percentage  of  gas  below  a  dangerous  standard.  Most  mines  are  examined  at 
regular  intervals  by  a  " fireman"  who  can  estimate  approximately  the  percentage  of 
gas  present  by  the  size  of  the  faintly  luminous  "cap"  which  hovers  above  the  flame 
of  his  lamp. 

Explosions  have  occurred,  however,  in  cases  where  it  is  extremely  doubtful 
whether  gas  has  been  present  in  dangerous  quantity,  and  attention  has  been  drawn  to 
the  possible  causes.  Many  varieties  of  coal  produce  a  quantity  of  fine  dust  which 
settles  in  the  roadways,  on  roof,  and  sides,  and  floor.  For  many  years  there  has  been 
a  controversy  as  to  the  relative  importance  of  gas  and  dust  in  producing  explosions, 
and  the  question  is  still  one  which  gives  rise  to  a  lively  difference  of  opinion.  But 
there  is  no  doubt  that  a  mixture  of  coal-dust  and  air  is  explosive,  and  that  even  if  an 
explosion  is  started  by  gas  the  disturbance  creates  clouds  of  dust  which  gives  rise  to 
secondary  explosions  and  spread  the  disaster  over  a  wider  field  than  was  originally 
affected. 

(244) 


THE  STORY  OF  COAL  MINING 


245 


246 


THE  STORY  OF  COAL  MINING 


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THE   STORY  OF  COAL  MINING 


247 


Consequently  a  plan  has  been  evolved  for  the  ventilating  current  to  be  reversed 
periodically,  in  order  to  remove  dust  which  has  settled  on  the  side  of  timbering  and 
crevices,  and  the  roadways  to  be  watered  in  order  to  allay  the  dust.  A  plan  has  also 
been  tried  of  spreading  fine  stone-dust  in  the  roadways.  This  mixes  with  the  coal- 
dust  and  renders  it  less  inflammable. 

Unfortunately  the  disastrous  effects  of  an  explosion  do  not  end  with  the  explosion 
itself.  The  main  products  of  combustion,  whether  of  fire-damp  or  coal-dust,  are 
carbon  monoxide  and  carbon  dioxide.  The  latter  causes  suffocation  and  the  former 
is  a  dangerous  poison.  It  is  the  dreaded  " after-damp"  of 
the  miner.  Those  who  survive  an  explosion  are  therefore  in 
danger  of  suffocation  or  poisoning,  and  it  becomes  imperative 
to  restore  the  circulation  of  the  air  with  the  least  possible  de- 
lay. For  even  if  the  fan  has  escaped  injury,  fallen  portions  of 
the  roof  may  have  choked  up  some  of  the  roadways,  or  the 
explosion  may  have  torn  down  doorways  and  provided  a  short 
cut  for  the  air.  But  if  the  atmosphere  is  dangerous  for  men 
in  the  pit  at  the  time,  it  is  equally  dangerous  for  others  to  go 
down  and  effect  repairs  or  render  first  aid. 

The  work  of  the  rescue  party  is  therefore  a  labor  of  des- 
perate heroism  and  often  attended  by  additional  loss  of  life. 
It  has  recently  been  found  possible  to  reduce  the  dangers  of 
after-damp  by  providing  rescue  parties  with  respirators  fitting 
over  the  mouth  and  nose,  and  supplied  with  oxygen  from  two 
steel  bottles  of  the  compressed  gas  strapped  across  the  back. 
An  effective  apparatus  of  this  kind,  such  as  has  been  adopted 
by  the  United  States  Government  for  the  use  of  the  Bureau  of 
Mines  Rescue  Crew,  is  shown  in  the  accompanying  illustra- 
tion. The  bag  in  front  is  known  as  a  "breathing  bag"  and 
has  separate  compartments  for  the  inhaling  and  exhaling,  the 
tube  at  the  right  leading  to  the  former  and  that  at  the  left  to 
the  exhaling  compartment,  which  usually  contains  sticks  of 
caustic  soda  to  absorb  the  carbon  dioxide  exhaled  by  the 
wearer. 

Coal  is  largely  formed  from  vast  masses  of  vegetable 
matter  deposited  through  the  luxuriant  growth  of  plants  in 
former  epochs  of  the  earth's  history.  In  the  varieties  of  coal 
in  common  use  the  combined  effects  of  pressure,  heat  and 
chemical  action  upon  the  substance  have  left  few  traces  of  its 
vegetable  origin;  but  in  the  sandstones,  clays  and  shales 
accompanying  the  coal  the  plants  to  which  it  principally 
owes  its  origin  are  presented  in  a  fossil  state  in  great  pro- 
fusion and  frequently  with  their  structure  so  distinctly 
retained,  although  replaced  by  mineral  substances,  as  to  ena- 
ble the  microscopist  to  determine  their  botanical  affinities 
with  existing  species.  Trees  of  considerable  magnitude  have  also  been  brought  to 
light. 

The  animal  remains  found  in  the  coal-measures  indicate  that  some  of  the  rocks 
have  been  deposited  in  fresh  water,  probably  in  lakes,  while  others  are  obviously  of 
estuarine  origin,  or  have  been  deposited  at  the  mouths  of  rivers  alternately  occupied  by 
fresh  and  salt  water.  The  great  system  of  strata  in  which  coal  is  chiefly  found  is 
known  as  the  carboniferous. 

There  are  many  varieties  of  coal,  varying  considerably  in  their  composition,  as 
anthracite,  nearly  pure  carbon,  and  burning  with  little  flame,  much  used  for  furnaces 


SECTION  OF  PART  OF  A 
COAL-FIELD,  SHOWING 

A  SUCCESSION  OF 

BURIED  TREES  AND 

LAND  SURFACE 

a,  sandstones. 
6,  shales. 

c,  coal-seams. 

d,  under-clays  or  soils. 


248 


THE  STORY  OF  COAL  MINING 


MINE  RESCUE  WORK 

Upper  view,  Bureau  of  Mines  Rescue  Crew  in  safety  helmets,  ready  to  enter 
a  gas-filled  mine.  Lower  view,  resuscitating  a  victim  overcome  by  gas  by  means  of 
the  oxygen  reviving  apparatus. 


THE  "STORY  OF  *  COAL  MINING 


249 


250 


THE  STORY  OF  COAL  MINING 


THE  STORY  OF  COAL  MINING 251 

and  malt  kilns;  bituminous,  a  softer  and  more  free-burning  variety;  and  cannel  or 
"gas-coal,"  which  burns  readily  like  a  candle,  and  is  much  used  in  gasmaking.  The 
terms  semi-anthracite,  semi-bituminous,  coking  coal,  splint  coal,  etc.,  are  also  applied 
according  to  peculiarities. 

All  varieties  agree  in  containing  from  60  to  over  90  per  cent  of  carbon,  the  other 
elements  being  chiefly  oxygen  and  hydrogen,  and  frequently  a  small  portion  of  nitro- 
gen! Lignite  or  brown  coal  may  contain  only  50  per  cent  of  carbon.  For  manu- 
facturing purposes  coals  are  generally  considered  to  consist  of  two  parts,  the  volatile 
or  bituminous  portion,  which  yields  the  gas  used  for  lighting,  and  the  substance, 
comparatively  fixed,  usually  known  as  coke,  which  is  obtained  by  heating  the  coals  in 
ovens  or  other  close  arrangements. 

About  260,000,000  tons  of  coal  are  annually  mined  in  Britain,  the  value  being  over 
$300,000,000.  Large  quantities  are  exported.  The  British  coal-fields,  though  com- 
paratively, extensive  (covering  about  9, 000  square  miles),  are  far  surpassed  by  those  of 
several  other  countries,  as  the  United  States  and  China,  the  former  having  coal-fields 
estimated  to  cover  about  451,000  square  miles;  the  latter  over  200,000  square  miles. 
Britain  no  longer  mines  the  largest  quantity,  having  been  far  surpassed  by  the  United 
States.  Other  countries  in  which  coal  is  worked  are  Belgium,  France,  Germany, 
Russia,  India,  New  South  Wales  and  Canada.  China  has  hitherto  mined  only  on  a 
small  scale. 

The  annual  production  of  anthracite  coal  in  Pennsylvania  is  more  than  86,000,000 
tons  of  2,240  pounds;  valued  at  the  mines  at  $198,000,000.  In  1910  there  were  pro- 
duced of  bituminous' coal  388,222,868  tons,  valued  at  $463,654,776;  amount  of  coke 
manufactured,  37,000,000  tons.  This  was  distributed  widely  over  the  country,  the 
greatest  producers,  after  Pennsylvania,  being  Illinois,  West  Virginia,  Ohio,  Alabama 
and  Colorado. 

Recently  a  very  large  output  of  coal  has  been  discovered  in  Alaska,  the  value  of 
which  is  as  yet  undetermined,  though  it  is  believed  to  hold  a  vast  quantity  of  coal. 
The  value  of  the  western  coal-fields  also  is  far  from  known,  and  since  1906  very  exten- 
sive tracts  of  coal-bearing  lands  have  been  withdrawn  from  settlement,  principally  in 
Wyoming,  Montana,  Colorado,  Utah  and  New  Mexico,  their  beds  being  largely  of 
lignite.  These  cover  about  50,000,000  acres,  and,  with  those  of  Alaska,  are  held  by 
the  government  as  national  assets.  The  mines  of  Alaska  are  claimed  to  be  exceed- 
ingly rich,  both  in  bituminous  and  anthracite  coal,  the  beds  examined  being  estimated 
to  contain  15,000,000,000  tons,  while  there  are  large  districts  unexamined.  They  have 
not  yet  been  worked,  the  government  keeping  them  back  for  public  ownership. 


How  can  We  Hear  through  the  Walls  of  a  Room? 

We  are  able  to  hear  easily  through  the  walls  of  many  rooms  because  the  material 
used  in  those  walls  are  good  conductors  of  sound.  We  know  that  some  things  are 
better  conductors  of  heat  than  others,  and  just  in  that  same  way,  some  things  conduct 
sound  better  than  others.  Wood  has  been  shown  to  be  an  even  better  conductor 
of  sound  than  air.  Most  of  us  have  stood  at  the  foot  of  an  overhead  trolley  pole  to 
see  if  we  could  hear  a  car  coming,  and  we  know  that  the  reason  we  did  this  was 
because  we  could  hear  the  wire  humming,  when  we  put  our  ears  against  the  pole, 
even  though  we  could  not  hear  any  sound  in  the  air. 

When  we  are  in  a  room  that  has  wooden  walls  we  can  hear  sounds  in  the  next 
room  very  plainly,  not  because  the  wall  is  thin,  but  because  the  wood  in  the  wall  is 
a  good  conductor  of  sound.  Other  walls  made  of  different  kinds  of  material,  are  not 
as  good  conductors  of  sound.  While  you  may  hear  through  them,  you  cannot  hear 
as  plainly  as  you  can  through  a  wooden  wall. 


252 


WHAT  IS  A  DIESEL  ENGINE  LIKE 


What  is  a  Diesel  Engine  Like? 

The  Diesel  engine  has  caused  a  great  deal  of  comment  of  late  years  because  of 
the  spectacular  uses  to  which  it  has  been  successfully  applied.     A  specially  con- 
structed  Diesel  engine  was  probably  the  chief  aid  in  the  accomplishment  of  the 
nrst  submarine  trans-Atlantic  voyage  by  the  German  submarine  "  Deutschland  " 
It  is  an  oil  engine  which  was  invented  by  Rudolph  Diesel  in  1893 
I  he  engine  operates  at  compression  pressures  very  much  higher  than  those  used 


THE  DIESEL  ENGINE 

in  any  other  internal  combustion  engines,  and  it  dispenses  with  the  usual  igniting 
devices  by  rendering  the  air  charge  incandescent  by  compression. 
•A  i.      x?  e?.cle?cv  of  the  Diesel  engine  is  high,  and  it  can  use  low  grades  of  fuel,  but 
it  has  the  disadvantage  of  greater  weight  per  horse-power  than  other  engines. 

It  has  found  increasing  favor  for  use  in  marine  propulsion,  and  in  1913  was 
adapted  to  high-speed  railway  service,  and  put  into  use  in  Germany. 

What  does  the  Sheep-Grower  Get  for  the  Wool  in  a  Suit  of  Clothes? 

A  man's  ordinary  three-piece  fall  suit  has  about  nine  pounds  of  wool  in  it.  Such 
a  suit  might  cost  somewhere  between  twenty  and  forty  dollars,  depending  on 
whether  it  was  bought  ready  made  or  whether  it  was  made  to  order.  If  the  price 
was  questioned,  the  retailer  would  probably  explain  that  it  was  aft  wool  and  that 
the  wool  cost  was  the  reason  it  was  expensive,  and  still  the  sheep-man  who  raised 
the  wool  only  received  an  average  of  about  eighteen  cents  a  pound,  or  $1.62,  for  all 
the  wool  used  on  the  suit. 

,  Of  course,  the  largest  part  of  the  cost  of  a  suit  of  clothes  is  really  accounted  for 
by  the  cost  of  transportation,  weaving,  tailoring  and  selling,  but  we  must  all  agree 
that  the  sheep-man  who  tends  the  flock  all  winter  and  cuts  the  wool  in  the  spring  is 
not  to  blame  for  high  prices. 


The  Story  in  a  Silver  Teaspoon* 

The  spoon  is  older  than  history.  There  is,  perhaps,  no  article  or  utensil  of  com- 
mon use  today  that  can  trace  an  earlier  origin.  The  evolution  and  development  of 
the  spoon  into  the  graceful  and  beautiful  forms  in  use  on  our  tables  is  facinating  and 
instructive. 

Primitive  men  of  the  Stone  Age  used  an  implement  that  might  by  courtesy  be 
called  a  spoon.  From  then  on  down  through  the  Egyptian,  Greek  and  Roman  civili- 
zations it  can  be  clearly  traced  in  varying  forms  and  substances — wood,  shell,  flint, 
bone,  ivory,  bronze  and  the  precious  metals,  gold  and  silver. 

A  witty  Frenchman  has  said  that  spoons,  if  not  as  old  as  the  world,  are  certainly 
as  old  as  soup. 

In  the  Bible  is  the  first  recorded  mention  of  the  use  of  epoons  made  of  precious 
metal.  This  reference  is  the  twenty-fifth  chapter  of  the  Book  of  Exodus,  wherein  the 
Lord  commanded  Moses  to  make  golden  spoons  for  the  Tabernacle. 

Excavations  in  Egypt  have  brought  to  light  early  examples  of  spoons  of  various 
materials,  and  it  is  certain  that  the  early  Greeks  and  Romans  used  gold  and  silver 
spoons,  both  at  the  table  and  in  the  Temple.  Early  specimens  of  spoons  made  of 
wood,  ivory,  bronze,  silver  and  gold  are  preserved  in  the  museums  of  Europe  and 
Egypt. 

During  the  early  Christian  and  medieval  eras  spoons  were  in  common  use. 
Saxon  and  Early  English  examples  are  to  be  seen  in  the  English  museums  today. 

The  medieval  spoon  was  of  silver,  horn  or  wood,  etc.  On  the  Continent,  silver 
spoons  were  made  much  earlier  than  in  England.  In  Italy  they  were  in  use  probably 
long  before  1000  A.  D. 

During  the  Tudor  and  Stuart  reigns  a  fashionable  ^ift  at  christenings  was  the 
apostle,  so  called  because  at  the  end  of  the  handle  was  the  figure  of  an  apostle.  Some- 
times a  thirteenth  spoon  was  added,  called  the  "Master"  spoon,  because  it  bore  the 
figure  of  Christ.  A  complete  set  was  a  very  valuable  gift,  and  could  only  be  afforded 
by  the  rich. 

Folks  of  limited  means  used  copper,  pewter,  latten  or  alchemy  spoons;  the  latter 
two  materials  being  somewhat  like  brass,  examples  of  which  are  sometimes  found  in 
this  country  in  the  graves  of  Indians  of  the  sixteenth  and  seventeenth  centuries, 
showing  their  intercourse  with  early  English  traders. 

At  this  period  the  stems  were  hexagonal,  ending  in  an  acorn,  a  bird  or  a  ball, 
while  the  bowls  were  fig  shape.  Later  the  stems  were  baluster  shape  with  a  seal  top, 
and  at  the  time  of  the  Commonwealth  the  stem  became  flat  and  perfectly  plain.  These 
latter  are  called  " Puritan"  spoons. 

Naturally,  the  early  New  England  colonists  brought  with  them  the  spoons  they 
had  used  at  home,  and  the  early  Colonial  silversmiths  followed  closely  the  designs 
which  they  found  at  hand  or  which  were  later  imported  from  England.  In  fact, 
within  a  few  years  after  a  certain  type  had  become  popular  in  the  mother  country,  it 
was  adopted  in  this  country  as-  the  fashionable  style.  It  is,  therefore,  easy  to  date, 
approximately,  an  American-made  spoon,  because  it  follows  so  closely  in  style  the 
dated  or  hall-marked  English  spoon. 

During  the  last  quarter  of  the  seventeenth  century,  both  in  England  and  America* 
spoons  were  generally  of  a  style  now  known  as  rat-tail.  From  the  end  of  the  handle, 
down  the  back  of  the  bowl  to  about  the  middle,  ran  a  ridge  shaped  like  a  rat-tail. 

*  Illustrations  by  courtesy  of  the  International  Silver  Co. 

(253) 


254 


THE  STORY  IN  A  SILVER  TEASPOON 


This  is  sometimes  thought  to  have  been  an  attempt  to  strengthen  the  spoon,  but  its 
use  must  have  been  purely  ornamental,  for  it  adds  little  strength  to  these  strongly 
made  spoons.  Sometimes  the  rat-tail  was  shaped  like  a  long  V  and  grooved,  while  on 
each  side  were  elaborate  scrolls.  The  bowl  was  perfectly  oval  in  shape,  while  the  end 
of  the  handle  was  notched  or  trifid. 

This  style  of  spoon  was  continued,  with  modifications,  through  the  first  third  of 

the  eighteenth  century.  Then 
the  bowl  became  ovoid,  or  egg- 
shaped,  and  the  end  of  the  handle 
was  rounded,  without  the  notch. 
The  rat-tail  was  gradually 
replaced  by  what  is  known  as 
the  drop,  or  double  drop,  fre- 
quently terminating  in  a  conven- 
tionalized flower  or  shell,  or 
anthemion,  while  down  the  front 
of  the  handle  ran  a  rib. 

Later,  the  bowl  became  more 
pointed,  the  drop  was  replaced 
by  a  tongue,  and  the  handle,  after 
1760,  instead  of  slightly  curving 
to  the  front  at  the  end,  reversed 
the  position.  Somewhat  later, 
the  handle  became  pointed,  and 
was  engraved  with  bright,  cut 
ornaments  and  a  cartouch  at  the 
end  in  which  were  engraved  the 
initials  of  the  owner. 

During  the  first  ten  years  of 
the  nineteenth  century  a  popular 
style  was  the  so-called  coffin- 
shaped  handle,  succeeded,  pro- 
bably about  1810,  by  a  handle 
with  a  shoulder  just  above  the 
junction  with  the  bowl,  while  the 
end  became  fiddle-shaped  or  of  a 
style  now  known  as  tipped,  shapes 
produced  to  this  day. 

Until    about    1770,    spoons 
were  of  three  sizes :  the  teaspoon, 
as  small  as  an  after-dinner  coffee 
spoon;    the  porringer   spoon,   a 
little  smaller   than   our  present 
dessert  size;  and  the  tablespoon,  with  a  handle  somewhat  shorter  than  that  of  today. 
So  few  silver  forks  have  been  found  in  collections  of  old  silver  that  it  forces  the 
belief  that  they  were  generally  made  of  steel,  with  bone  handles.     There  seems  nc 
reason  why,  if  in  general  use,  silver  forks  should  not  now  be  as  common  as  spoons. 

In  the  great  silver  exhibition  recently  held  in  the  Museum  of  Fine  Arts,  Boston, 
of  more  than  one  thousand  pieces,  there  were  only  two  forks  to  be  found. 

Great  skill  was  developed  by  the  early  silversmiths  of  England  and  America. 
The  purity  and  gracefulness  of  design  in  many  cases  remain  as  standards  for  our  best 
craftsmen  today.  It  is,  however,  erroneous  to  suppose  that  all  of  the  ornamentation 
was  done  by  hand 


LATTEN  SPOONS 

One  found  in  an  Indian  grave  at  Deerfield,  Mass.,  and 
the  other  in  an  Indian  grave  at  Hadley,  Mass.  Period  of 
about  1660.  Actual  size,  6  inches  and  6M  inches. 


THE  STORY  IN  A  SILVER  TEASPOON 


255 


Ornaments  on  the  back  of  spoon  bowls  and  handles  were  impressed  by  dies 
forced  together  by  drop  presses  or  under  screw  pressure.  This  is  absolutely  proven 
by  the  exact  duplication  of  the  pattern  on  sets  of  spoons.  Accurate  measurements 
show  that  these  ornaments  were  not  handwork,  for  there  is  not  the  slightest  deviation 
in  dimensions. 

But,  however  beautiful  the  silver  of  our  forbears  and  however  valuable  now, 


Back 


Front 


FRONTS  AND  BACKS  OF  Two  EARLY  AMERICAN  SPOONS  OF  THE 
RAT-TAIL  TYPE 

The  spoon  in  the  center  is  the  earliest  of  that  type,  made 
about   1690.      The  other  dates  about  1695. 

from  a  historic  standpoint,  there  are  few  of  us  who,  if  given  the  choice,  would  not 
decide  in  favor  of  the  product  of  the  twentieth  century  silversmith,  who  brings  to  his 
creations  all  of  the  good  of  the  old  masters,  and  who  has  the  facilities  for  turning  out 
work  more  perfect  in  line  and  detail  and  uniformity  than  was  ever  dreamed  of  by  the 
silver  worker  of  old. 

We  admire  the  beautiful  silverware  that  we  see  in  the  shop  windows,  we  derive 
satisfaction  and  pleasure  from  the  daily  use  of  silver  on  our  tables,  but  few  people 


256 


THE  STORY  IN  A  SILVER  TEASPOON 


have  any  understanding  how  silver  plate  is  made;  and  there  is,  perhaps,  still  less 
knowledge  of  its  interesting  history. 

The  combining  of  two  separate  metals — that  is,  the  plating  of  a  base  metal  with 
a  finer  one — was,  until  the  eighteenth  century,  a  lost  art  of  the  ancients. 

The  application  of  one  metal  upon  another  was  practiced  by  the  Assyrians, 
who  overlapped  iron  with  bronze;  copper  implements  and  ornaments  coated  with 
silver  have  been  found  at  Herculaneum,  while  many  ancient  Roman  speci- 
mens of  harness  and  armor  are 
found  to  be  ornamented  with 
silver  on  copper.  The  Aztecs  of 
Mexico  and  the  Incas  of  Peru 
used  the  process  of  fixing  two 
metals  together  by  the  action  of 
heat,  before  making  up.  The 
method  was  also  known  to  the 
old  Celts,  as  shown  by  specimens 
found  in  Iceland.  It  seems,  how- 
ever, to  have  been  a  lost  art  in 
Europe,  probably  because  up  to 
the  thirteenth  century  the  Church 
had  control  of  the  arts  and  crafts 
in  England,  and  the  finer  metal 
work  was  used  only  for  church 
vessels,  the  household  implements 
being  very  simple  and  mostly  of 
wood  and  cheap  metal. 

Horace  Walpole,  writing  in 
1760,  states:  "I  passed  through 
Sheffield,  a  business  town  in  a 
charming  situation,  with  22,000 
inhabitants,  and  they  remit 
£11,000  a  week  to  London.  One 
man  there  has  discovered  the  art 
of  plating  copper  with  silver." 

The  inventor  to  whom  the 
quotation  refers  was  Thomas 
Bolsover,  a  skilled  silversmith, 
who,  in  the  year  1742,  it  is  tradi- 
tionally reported,  while  repairing 
a  thin  layer  of  silver  on  the 
copper  handle  of  a  knife,  evolved 
the  idea  of  combining  copper  with 
silver  in  layers  ready  for  manu- 
facture into  any  desired  form. 

Bolsover  himself  apparently 

did  not  appreciate  the  importance  of  this  invention,  and  it  remained  for  Joseph 
Hancock,  one  of  his  apprentices,  to  develop  the  idea  to  a  commercial  success.  He 
vigorously  encouraged  the  trade  in  Sheffield,  Birmingham  and  other  manufacturing 
centers,  and  finally  constructed  a  rolling-mill  and  made  his  fortune  by  supplying 
the  plat;e  to  the  silversmiths. 

The  earlier  specimens  of  this  Sheffield  plate,  as  it  came  to  be  known,  had  the 
silver  on  one  side  of  the  copper  only,  but  later  attempts  were  made  to  improve  the 
appearance  of  finer  pieces  by  covering  the  underside  of  the  copper  with  tin. 


Front 


Back 


TABLE  AND  TEASPOON  WITH  THE  SO-CALLED  COFFIN- 
SHAPED  HANDLE 

A  shape  peculiar  to  America.     This  type  common 
from  1800  to  1815.      Reductions  about  one-half. 


THE  STORY  Of  A  SILVER  TEASPOON 


257 


Crude  as  this  idea  and  the  old  methods  of  manufacture  may  seem,  compared 
with  modern  processes,  this  old  plate  found  a  ready  sale.  It  replaced  in  many  house- 
holds pewter  ware  which,  until  the  introduction  of  Sheffield  plate,  was  the  best  sub- 
stitute for  sterling  silver.  It  became  fashionable  for  everyday  use  by  the  nobility  and 
wealthier  families,  who  put  aside  their  solid  silverware  to  be  used  on  state  occasions 
only.  The  name  "  plate,  "which  is  from  the  Spanish  word  platte,  came  to  be  used 
generally  to  designate  the  imitation  of  solid  silver. 

This  plate,  being  suoh  a  close  imitation  of  solid  silver,  was  not  permitted  by  the 
laws  of  England  to  bear  any 
stamp  whatever  prior  to  1773, 
when  the  town  of  Sheffield  was 
specially  privileged  to  put  upon 
its  product  the  marks  of  the 
makers.  These  marks,  however, 
were  not  to  bear  any  resemblance 
of  the  lion  or  leopard's  head, 
these  being  the  hall-marks  of 
England. 

It  was  not  until  1785  that 
this  privilege  was  extended  to  the 
town  of  Birmingham  and  other 
manufacturing  centers. 

It  is  curious  to  note  that 
this  law  against  the  imitation 
of  silver,  which  really  dated  from 
the  fifteenth  century,  made  a 
special  exception  to  articles  made 
for  the  Church. 

Sometimes  this  old  Sheffield 
plate,  in  addition  to  bearing  the 
maker's  name,  bore  the  name  of 
the  lord  or  earl  for  whom  it  was 
made,  and  today  these  old  pieces 
are  more  highly  valued  by  then- 
owners  than  silver  which  is  intrin- 
sically  more  valuable. 

Much  of  the  charm  of  old 
plate  was  in  its  beauty  of  form 
and  design,  for  the  work  attracted 
the  best  of  English  artisans.  It 
would  appear,  too,  that  they  were 
fairly  well  paid  for  their  labor,  as 
Pepys,  in  his  "  Diary,"  refers  to 
a  present  made  him  of  a  pair  of  flagons  which  cost  £100.  "They  are  said  to  be  worth 
five  shillings,  some  say  ten  shillings,  an  ounce  for  the  fashion." 

The  first  notable  improvement  over  the  Sheffield  work  came  toward  the  middle 
of  the  nineteenth  century,  when  electro-silver  plating  was  first  practiced  and,  in 
1847,  commercially  perfected,  by  Rogers  Brothers  of  Hartford,  Conn. 

The  marvelous  force  of  electricity  was  brought  to  bear  on  the  making  of  silver- 
plated  knives,  forks,  spoons,  etc.,  as  well  as  hollow-ware  articles,  such  as  coffee  and 
tea  pots,  water  pitchers,  sugar  bowls  and  platters.  Instead  of  these  articles  being 
made  of  sheets  of  rolled  copper  and  silver,  a  silver  plate  of  any  desired  thickness  is 
applied  to  the  base  metal  by  electricity. 


Westminster 


Fronteoac 

MODERN  DESIGNS 


Brandon 


258 THE  STORY  IN  A  SILVER  TEASPOON 

This  quick  and  less  expensive  method  of  manufacture  rendered  silver  plate 
available  to  all  classes,  and  the  Sheffield  plate  was  quickly  superseded,  the  old 
method  of  manufacture  becoming  obsolete. 

While  the  process  of  manufacture  was  cheapened,  the  newer  craftsmen  wisely 
held  to  the  art  standards  of  the  old  masters.  With  the  new  process  came  the  per- 
fection of  modern  construction,  and  the  cost  is  so  much  less  than  in  the  old  days  that 
a  perfect  table  service  of  authentic  design,  of  quality  beyond  question  and  guaranteed 
in  every  respect,  is  within  the  reach  of  any  well-to-do  family.  Many  of  che  old 
family  pieces  of  Sheffield  have  found  their  way  into  the  melting  pot  in  exchange  for 
the  modern  electro-plated  silverware. 

The  making  of  silver-plated  flatware  is  an  interesting  process  and  one  that 
requires  a  great  amount  of  skill  and  care.  The  finished  teaspoon,  as  it  lies  in  the 
show-case  or  chest,  is  the  result  of  over  thirty  distinct  operations,  while  a  plain  silver- 
plated  steel  knife  has  passed  through  thirty-six  stages  in  its  evolution  from  the  bit 
of  steel  rod,  in  which  shape  it  begins  its  journey.  Some  of  tht  more  important  steps 
in  the  making  of  a  spoon  are  briefly  described  below: 

The  Blank. 

The  metal  underlying  the  silver  plate  of  the  best  plated  teaspoons  is  of  nickel 
silver,  a  trade  name  for  a  metal  composed  of  nickel,  copper  and  zinc.  This  metal 
is  procured  in  sheet  form  of  varying  lengths.  From  this  sheet  is  cut  a  blank,  which 
bears  little  resemblance  to  a  spoon,  being  about  half  the  length  of  the  finished  article 
and  very  much  wider. 

Squeezed. 

The  blank  is  then  "squeezed,"  which  gives  to  the  part  that  is  to  become  the 
handle  a  little  more  of  the  appearance  that  it  will  have  later. 

Rolling. 

This  "squeezed"  blank  is  then  passed  through  a  series  of  steel  rolls,  giving 
length  to  the  handle  and  width  to  the  bowl,  and  distributing  the  metal  according  to 
the  correct  thickness — that  is,  the  bowl  will  be  thin  and  the  shank  thick. 

Clipping. 

The  next  process  is  termed  "clipping,"  the  spoon  being  cut  out  from  the  blank 
in  the  correct  outline  of  the  pattern. 

Annealing. 

The  process  of  rolling  the  metal  has  so  compressed  the  latter  that  it  cannot  be 
readily  worked.  It  is  necessary,  therefore,  that  the  spoon  be  annealed — that  is,  the 
shaped  blanks  are  placed  in  an  oven  and  brought  to  a  red  heat,  which  rsnders  them 
malleable. 

The  Evolution  of  a  Spoon. 

From  the  crude  blank  of  nickel  silver  to  the  finished  spoon,  there  are  over  thirty 
distinct  operations  necessary,  a  few  of  the  more  important  stages  being  illustrated. 
When  the  spoon  emerges  from  the  plating  solution  (see  No.  8),  it  is  perfectly  white 
and  looks  as  if  it  had  been  treated  with  a  heavy  coat  of  enamel.  It  is  then  scratch- 
brushed,  burnished  and,  in  some  patterns,  the  handle  is  greyed.  After  this,  the  spoon 
is  buffed  and  finished. 

Every  operation  is  performed  with  the  utmost  care,  and  not  until  the  piece  is 
actually  finished  can  this  vigilance  be  relaxed,  as  it  is  the  final  processes  that  make 
the  plating  of  pure  silver  an  actual  part  of  the  spoon  and  insure  its  wearing  qualities. 


THE  STORY  IN  A  SILVER  TEASPOON  259 

Striking  and  Bowling. — The  pattern  is  then  stamped  on  the  handle  and  the  bowl 
is  shaped. 

Trimming,  etc. — After  the  pattern  and  the  bowl  have  been  struck,  there  is 
usually  a  small  burr  left  where  the  metal  has  oozed  out  between  the  dies.  This  is 
removed  by  trimming.  The  trademark  is  then  stamped  on  the  back  of  the  handle. 

Polishing. — The  goods  are  put  through  various  operations  of  polishing  until  they 
are  brought  to  a  high  finish. 

Plating. — The  articles  to  be  plated  are  suspended  in  a  frame  in  the  silver 
solution.  This  frame  is  connected  with  the  negative  pole  of  a  magneto-electro 
machine,  while  the  silver  is  suspended  in  the  solution  from  bars  and  connected 


1.  The  blank.    2.  Squeezed.    3.  Blank  rolled.    4.  Spoon  cut  from  blank.    5.  Design 
struck.    6.  Bowl  raised.   7.  Trade-mark  stamped.   8.  After  plating.    9.  The  finished  spoon. 

with  the  positive  or  opposite  pole  of  the  machine,  thereby  forming  a  circuit  for 
the  electricity  through  the  solution. 

A  patent  automatic  scale,  designed  to  weigh  the  silver  while  depositing,  is 
balanced  to  the  exact  weight  of  silver  to.  be  deposited  on  the  article.  The  circuit  is 
completed  by  turning  a  switch  and  the  plating  begins. 

As  soon  as  the  articles  receive  the  proper  weight  of  silver,  the  scale  beam  rises, 
thus  making  a  separate  connection  with  the  electro- magnet,  which  springs  the  switch, 
breaking  the  electric  current  and  stopping  the  plating  at  the  same  instant,  also  ringing 
an  alarm  bell  to  notify  the  workman  that  the  articles  have  received  the  proper  weight 
of  silver. 

Quality. — Standard  silver-plated  spoons  are  made  in  two  grades  of  plate — 
triple  and  quintuple.  The  former,  however,  is  the  one  generally  used  and  answers 
all  ordinary  requirements.  The  quintuple  grade  is  designed  more  particularly  for 
hotels,  restaurants,  clubs  and  other  institutions  where  the  wear  is  especially  severe. 

The  Evolution  of  a  Knife. 

There  are  thirty-six  stages  in  the  evolution  of  a  plain  steel  knife.  At  one  end  of 
the  journey  we  see  the  cylindrical  bar  of  steel,  black  and  unlovely;  at  the  other,  the 
silver-plated  knife,  light,  well-balanced  and  heavily  plated  with  pure  silver.  In  the 
case  of  other  than  plain  knives,  the  work  involves  also  the  stamping  of  the  pattern. 


260 


THE  STORY  IN  A  SILVER  TEASPOON 


Double  Burnishing. — The  thickness  of  the  silver  deposited,  however,  is  not  the 
only  requisite  to  insure  quality.  The  plating  must  be  hard  as  well  as  thick.  This  is 
accomplished  by  means  of  a  double-burnishing  process  after  the  article  is  plated  and 
before  it  receives  its  final  buffed  finish. 

The  first  burnishing  is  on  machines  and  this  is  followed  by  hand  burnishing. 
This  process  produces  a  hard  plate. 

No  matter  how  heavy  the  plate,  if  it  is  not  properly  burnished  or  hardened 
after  plating,  the  article  will  not  give  satisfaction  in  long  wear.  When  manufacturers 
treat  their  wares  to  as  little  burnishing  as  possible,  practically  relying  upon  the  buff 
alone  for  their  finish  after  plating,  the  result  is  most  unsatisfactory.  The  buff  finish 


1.  Steel  cut  to  length.  2.  Handle  formed  by  1,000-pound  blow.  3.  Handle  margin, 
or  flash,  removed.  4.  Blade  drawn  out  through  a  pair  of  rolls.  5.  Blade  cut  out  to  shape. 
6.  Knife  roughed  with  coarse  emery.  7.  Trade-mark  etched.  8.  After  plating.  9.  The 
finished  knife. 


looks  all  right, 
latter  does  not 
deposited  is  in 
high  spots  but 
the  silver  hard 
The  silver 
sterling  silver. 
for  plating  can 


but  it  does  not  harden  the  silver  sufficiently  and  in  consequence  the 
wear  well.  When  the  article  comes  out  of  the  plating  bath  the  silver 
a  comparatively  porous  and  "fluffy"  state.  The  buffing  will  hit  the 
the  proper  process  turns  the  minute  edges,  closes  the  pores  and  makes 
and  compact,  vastly  increasing  the  wearing  quality, 
thus  deposited,  is  absolutely  pure — finer,  in  fact,  than  any  articles  of 
Sterling  is  but  .925  fine,  requiring  an  alloy  to  stiffen  it,  whereas  silver 
be  used  .999  fine. 


How  do  Chimes  Strike  the  Hour? 

Chimes  are  ordinarily  produced  mechanically  by  the  strokes  of  hammers  against 
a  series  of  bells,  tuned  agreeably  to  a  given  musical  scale. 

The  hammers  are  lifted  by  levers  acted  upon  by  metallic  pins  or  wooden  pegs 
stuck  in  a  large  barrel,  which  is  made  to  revolve  by  clockwork,  and  is  so  connected 
with  the  striking  part  of  the  clock  mechanism  that  it  is  set  in  motion  by  it  at  certain 
intervals  of  time,  usually  every  hour  or  every  quarter  of  an  hour. 

The  chime  mechanism  is  sometimes  so  constructed  that  it  may  be  played  like  a 
piano,  but  with  the  fist  instead  of  the  fingers. 


ELECTRICITY  BROUGHT  INTO  THE  HOUSE  261 


Courtesy  of  the  Niagara  Falls  Power  Co. 

NIAGARA  ELECTRIC  TRANSMISSION  LINE 

Tower  supporting  high  tension  transmission  cables  of  long  span  crossing  of  Niagara 
River  between  Buffalo  and  Fort  Erie,  Canada. 


262          ELECTRICITY  BROUGHT  INTO  THE  HOUSE 

How  is  Electricity  Brought  into  a  House? 

The  electric  transmission  of  power  is  effected  by  employing  the  source  of  power 
to  drive  a  machine  called  a  dynamo,  which^generates  an  electric  current. 

This  current  is  conveyed  by  a  copper' conductor,  insulated  from  the  earth,  to 
the  distant  station,  where  it  passes  through  a  machine  called  an  "electromotor," 
one  part  of  which  is  thereby  made  to  revolve,  and  imparts  its  motion  to  the  machinery 
which  is  to  be  driven. 

This  is  the  simplest  arrangement,  and  is  that  which  is  commonly  employed 
when  the  original  currents  are  not  of  such  high  tension  as  to  be  dangerous  to  life 
in  the  case  of  accidental  shocks.  There  is,  however,  a  great  waste  of  power  in 
employing  low-tension  currents  when  the  distance  is  great;  hence  it  is  becoming  a 
common  practice  to  employ  high-tension  currents  for  transmission  through  the  long 
conductor  which  connects  the  two  stations,  and  to  convert  these  into  low-tension 
currents  before  they  reach  the  houses  or  workshops  where  they  are  to  be  used.  This 
is  done  sometimes  by  employing  the  high-tension  currents  to  drive  a  local  dynamo 
which  generates  low-tension  currents. 

The  discovery  that  a  Gramme  machine  is  reversible — that  is  to  say,  when  two 
Gramme  machines  are  coupled  together  and  one  is  operated  as  a  generator,  the  other 
will  act  as  a  motor — was  an  important  step  taken  in  the  transmission  of  power. 
Numerous  efforts,  since  then,  have  been  made  to  utilize  electricity  for  the  transmission 
of  power  over  a  long  range.  For  this  purpose  the  alternating  current  seems  eminently 
adapted,  as  transformers  only  are  needed  to  raise  the  line  to  high  transmission  voltage 
and  to  lower  it  again  for  use. 

The  possibilities  offered  by  electrical  transmission  of  water  power  for  sections  of 
country  favored  with  waterfalls  are  numerous  and  have  been  extensively  developed, 
which  should  result  in  making  them  great  industrial  centers.  In  this  direction  much 
has  been  done  in  utilizing  the  immense  power  of  the  Niagara  Falls  by  electrical  trans- 
mission, works  having  been  built  for  this  purpose  both  in  New  York  and  Canada, 
and  several  hundred  thousand  horse-power  developed.  The  application  of  the 
power  of  waterfalls  to  the  generation  of  electricity  is  rapidly  extending,  and  promises 
to  become  a  great  source  of  mechanical  power  in  the  future. 

What  was  the  Origin  of  Masonic  Signs? 

Fable  and  imagination  have  traced  back  the  origin  of  freemasonary  to  the 
Roman  Empire,  to  the  Pharaohs,  the  Temple  of  Solomon,  the  Tower  of  Babel,  and 
even  to  the  building  of  Noah's  ark.  In  reality,  it  took  its  rise  in  the  middle  ages 
along  with  other  incorporated  crafts. 

Skilled  masons  moved  from  place  to  place  to  assist  in  building  the  magnificent 
sacred  structures — cathedrals,  abbeys,  etc. — which  had  their  origin  in  these  times, 
and  it  was  essential  for  them  to  have  some  signs  by  which,  on  coming  to  a  strange 
place,  they  could  be  recpgnized  as  real  craftsmen  and  not  impostors. 

What  is  a  Dictograph? 

The  dictograph,  to  which  much  publicity  is  now  given,  by  reason  of  its  use  in 
detective  work,  is  an  instrument  for  magnifying  sound.  It  was  invented  by  K.  M. 
Turner  of  New  York,  in  1907. 

It  consists  of  a  master  station  in  the  form  of  a  box  less  than  a  foot  long  and  six 
inches  deep,  and  any  number  of  sub-stations  that  may  be  required.  Any  voice  within 
fifteen  feet  is  taken  by  the  receiving  instrument  and  carried  over  the  wires  to  any 
distance  within  about  a  thousand  miles. 

It  has  now  been  adopted  by  a  great  many  business  organizations  as  a  convenient 
means  of  inter-communication. 


The  Story  of  the  Wireless  Telegraph 

Though  one  or  more  means  of  transmitting  messages  by  electricity  have  been 
known  now  for  a  great  many  years,  the  mechanisms  by  which  they  are  accomplished 
are  understood  only  by  those  who  take  a  general  interest  in  physical  science,  and  the 
few  to  whom  electrical  communication  is  a  profession.  So  far  as  theory  and  details 
of  working  are  concerned,  there  are  a  good  many  people  still  in  the  same  shadowy 
frame  of  mind  as  the  old  Aberdeen  postmaster,  of  whom  the  story  is  told.  When 
asked  to  explain  the  working  of  a  telegraph  instrument  he  said,  "Look  at  that  sheep- 
dog. Suppose  we  hold  his  hind-quarters  here  and  stretch  him  put  until  his  head 
reaches  Glasgow.  Then  if  we  tread  on  his  tail  here  he  will  bark  in  Glasgow.  As  it 
is  not  convenient  to  stretch  a  dog,  we  stretch  a  wire,  and  that  serves  the  purpose." 

As  the  name  implies,  ''stretching  a  wire"  is  unnecessary  in  wireless  telegraphy, 
though  in  order  to  understand  the  finer  points  of  theory  one  needs  to  stretch  the 
imagination  a  little.  That,  however,  is  not  so  much,  because  there  is  any  inherent 
obscurity  or  difficulty  in  the  underlying  principles,  as  because  the  mechanism  of  all 
electrical  effects  is  more  or  less  intangible.  Electricity  and  magnetism  operate  across 
apparently  empty  space,  and  the  links  which  connect  cause  and  effect  have  to  be 
guessed  at. 

Three  different  methods  have  been  made  use  of  in  wireless  telegraphy,  which  may 
be  classed  as  conduction,  induction  and  wave  methods.  In  the  first  method  currents 
are  sent  through  the  earth  from  an  electrode  to  another  at  the  sending  station.  In 
induction,  use  is  made  of  the  property  which  alternating  currents  possess  of  exciting 
similar  currents  in  neighboring  conductors,  the  aim  being  to  get  as  intense  a  current 
as  possible  in  the  secondary  circuit.  Mr.  W.  H.  Preece,  of  England,  by  combining 
the  two,  signaled  in  this  way  as  far  as  forty  miles.  The  third  and  the  only  method 
which  has  proved  practically  available  is  by  the  use  of  electro-magnetic  waves. 

Guglielmo  Marconi,  an  Italian,  after  long  experiment,  patented  in  1897  a  method 
entirely  independent  of  wires,  the  electric  waves  being  sent,  presumably,  through 
the  ether,  by  the  aid  of  a  transmitting  apparatus,  and  being  detected  by  a  coherer, 
a  glass  tube  filled  with  metallic  filings,  into  the  end  of  which  the  terminals  of  a  relay 
circuit  enter.  The  wave  falls  on  conducting  material  and,  the  spark  gap  being 
replaced  by  a  coherer,  the  metallic  filings  magnetically  cling  together,  closing  the 
relay  circuit,  so  that  a  signal  is  made.  On  breaking  the  current,  a  slight  tap  on  the 
coherer  or  other  means  breaks  the  cohesion  of  the  filings  and  the  relay  circuit  is 
broken.  In  this  way  a  rapid  succession  of  signals  can  be  sent. 

In  1899  Marconi  conducted  in  England  an  exhaustive  series  of  successful  experi- 
ments, sending  messages  across  the  English  Channel  from  the  South  Foreland  to  the 
French  coast  near  Boulogne,  and  extending  his  results  until  much  longer  distances 
were  covered.  The  process  of  development  was  continued  until,  to  the  world's 
astonishment,  signals  were  sent  across  the  Atlantic  and,  finally,  commercial  messages 
were  transmitted  over  this  distance. 

Marconi's  system  is  based  on  the  property  supposed  to  be  exerted  by  the  vibra- 
tions or  waves  of  electric  currents  passing  through  a  wire  of  setting  up  similar  vibra- 
tions in  the  ether  of  space.  These  waves  extend  in  every  direction  from  the  point 
of  departure,  and  by  ingenious  and  very  delicate  receiving  instruments  their  presence 
in  space  is  indicated  and  they  are  taken  up  in  sufficient  strength  to  repeat  their  pulsa- 
tions and  in  this  way  reproduce  the  signals  sent  from  the  transmitter.  One  difficulty 
hitherto  has  been  that  a  message  may  be  received  by  hundreds  of  receiving  instru- 

(363) 


264       THE  STORY  OF  THE  WIRELESS  TELEGRAPH 

ments  in  all  directions,  thus  preventing  secrecy.     Many  efforts  have  been  made  to 
overcome  this  defect,  but  as  yet  with  only  partial  success. 

The  distance  to  which  messages  can  be  sent  has  so  far  depended  largely  on  the 
height  to  which  the  wires  extend  above  the  earth's  surface,  lofty  poles  being  erected 
at  the  stations.  The  height  of  these  has  been  gradually  increased  until  the  Eiffel 
Tower  at  Paris  has  been  utilized  as  a  sending  station.  The  strength  of  the  electric 
waves  has  been  similarly  increased  to  add  to  their  space-penetrating  capacity.  The 
record  of  wireless  telegraphy  has  been  in  this  way  improved  until  now  it  has  come  into 


MARCONI  WIRELESS  STATION 

daily  competition  with  other  means  of  news  sending.  Methods  of  tuning  the  instru- 
ments have  been  adopted  which  limit  the  influence  of  the  currents  to  properly  tuned 
receivers  and  in  this  way  some  degree  of  secrecy  is  attained. 

Though  the  honor  of  inventing  the  art  of  wireless  telegraphy  is  generally  ascribed 
to  Marconi,  this  is  to  give  him  more  credit  than  he  deserves.  The  principles  involved 
were  discovered  by  others  and  the  utmost  done  by  him  was  to  invent  a  practical 
method  of  applying  them.  There  are  other  systems  of  wireless  telegraphy  of  later 
invention  than  that  of  Marconi,  through  a  different  application  cf  the  same  principles. 

Messages  have  been  sent  to  enormous  distances,  far  surpassing  the  width  of  the 
Atlantic,  as  from  Nova  Scotia  and  Ireland  to  Argentina,  a  distance  of  5,600  miles. 
Under  exceptional  conditions  a  distance  of  6,500  miles  has  been  attained,  but  the  daily 
effective  range  of  the  best  equipped  stations  is  little  over  3,000  miles.  For  overland 
messages  the  limit  of  distance  is  about  1,000  miles. 

There  are  a  number  of  kinds  of  interference  which  arise  from  electrical  disturb- 
ances in  the  earth's  atmosphere.  A  flash  of  lightning  is  liable  to  give  rise  to  a  wave 
of  enormous  power  which  will  set  half  the  aerials  on  the  earth  vibrating  in  spite  of 
the  differences  of  pitch  to  which  they  are  tuned.  Thunderstorms  are  at  their  worst 


THE  STORY  OF  THE  WIRELESS  TELEGRAPH       265 

in  the  summer  in  temperate  latitudes,  but  they  occur  to  some  extent  all  the  year 
round,  and  those  in  the  tropics  are  of  extreme  violence.  As  a  consequence  it  is  fre- 
quently almost  impossible  to  decipher  earthly  messages  owing  to  the  imperious  signals 
from  the  clouds.  Of  the  various  methods  adopted  for  choking  off  the  "  atmospherics," 
as  the  disturbances  are  called,  one  is  to  use  receiving  circuits  which  respond  only  to  a 
narrow  range  of  oscillations  very  different  from  those  produced  by  a  lightning  flash. 
The  employment  of  a  high-pitched  musical  note  in  the  telephone  is  also  an  advantage 
because  its  extreme  regularity  distinguishes  if  from  the  marked  irregularity  of  the 
stray  waves. 

On  the  palatial  passenger  steamers  that  plow  the  Atlantic  the  Marconi  apparatus 
enables  the  travelers  to  keep  in  touch  with  their  friends,  to  transact  important 


WIRELESS  STATION  ON  A  STEAMSHIP 

business  on  either  side  of  the  water,  and  to  secure  a  continuity  of  life  which  was 
formerly  divided  by  a  sea  voyage.  All  the  larger  vessels  now  publish  a  daily  paper 
on  board,  the  news  in  which  has  been  supplied  by  the  same  agencies  who  feed 
the  newspaper  on  land.  Information  is  flashed  to  meet  or  overtake  the  vessel  and 
caught  up  by  her  aerial,  as  she  pursues  her  way  at  twenty-five  or  thirty  miles 
an  hour. 

In  the  case  of  cargo  vessels,  the  owners  are  able  to  get  into  touch  with  them  at 
any  point  of  their  voyage.  They  can  advise  the  captain  where  to  call  for  coal  or 
cargo,  while  he  on  his  part  can  get  into  communication  with  the  authorities  or  his 
firm's  agents  at  the  port  of  call,  and  have  every  necessary  or  desirable  preparation 
made  for  his  arrival.  Should  an  accident  happen,  he  can  call  assistance,  inform  the 
owners  or  relieve  anxiety  and  suspense.  At  no  time  is  he  isolated  from  the  world. 
The  fortitude,  courage  and  daring  of  those  "who  go  down  to  the  sea  in  ships"  has 
never  been  called  into  question,  but  it  has  if  anything  been  emphasized  by  the  receipt 
of  messages  from  an  operator  at  his  post,  to  whom  the  bonds  of  duty  were  as  bonds 


266 


THE  STORY  OF  THE  WIRELESS  TELEGRAPH 


THE  STORY  OF  THE  WIRELESS  TELEGRAPH       267 

of  steel,  and  who  calmly  operated  the  key  until  the  waves  entered  his  cabin  and 
brought  him  honorable  release. 

Relief  has  been  brought  in  this  way  to  vessels  in  distress  and  many  lives  saved. 
An  important  example  is  that  of  the  sinking  of  the  Titanic  in  1912.  By  means  of 
wireless  messages  from  ship  to  ship  the  width  of  the  Pacific  has  been  practically 
covered,  as  ships  en  route  from  America  to  Australia  or  Asia  can  be  kept  in  touch 
with  Honolulu  through  almost  the  entire  journey.  A  law  in  the  United  States  now 
requires  that  all  ocean  passage-steamers  carrying  fifty  or  more  passengers  on  routes 
of  200  miles  or  over  must  be  equipped  with  efficient  wireless  apparatus  and  operators. 
The  distance  reached  must  be  at  least  100  miles.  The  Canadian  law  provides  that 
every  sea-going  and  coasting  passenger  ship  of  over  400  tons  gross,  registered  in 
Canada,  and  every  sea-going  and  coasting  freight  ship  of  over  1,200  tons  gross,  shall 
be  equipped  with  a  wireless  apparatus.  Wireless  messages  have  been  successfully 
sent  from  aeroplanes,  balloons  and  submarine  vessels,  and  the  naval  vessels  of  all 
nations  are  kept  in  easy  communication  by  this  method.  Wireless  press  messages 
between  America  and  Europe  are  also  matters  of  daily  performances. 


What  is  Forestry  Work? 

A  Division  of  Forestry  was  organized  in  the  Department  of  Agriculture,  some 
years  ago,  and  the  most  earnest  efforts  are  being  made  to  prevent  any  needless  waste 
of  our  timber  lands. 

The  usefulness  of  forests  to  man  lies:  (1)  In  furnishing  him  with  timber  for 
building,  manufacturing,  fuel,  etc.,  and  with  various  other  useful  products  of  trees. 
(2)  In  their  influence  on  climate.  (3)  In  their  influence  on  water-flow,  by  keeping 
the  ground  more  moist,  making  the  outflow  more  regular,  checking  the  rapid  melting 
of  snow,  and  keeping  the  hillsides  from  being  denuded  of  their  soil,  thus  setting  up 
streams  and  covering  cultivated  valley  lands.  The  necessity  of  a  proper  preserva- 
tion of  the  forests  seems  highly  evident,  but  the  nations  have  been  slow  in  waking 
up  to  this  fact.  Several  of  the  countries  of  Europe  have  been  largely  stripped  of 
their  woodlands  by  indiscreet  cutting  in  the  poorest  countries,  and  only  recently 
have  the  nations  been  roused  to  the  necessity  of  their  conservation.  This  is  now 
being  carefully  attended  to  in  several  countries,  especially  Germany.  In  China 
broad  mountain  regions  have  been  stripped  of  their  trees,  with  the  result  that  this 
soil  has  been  swept  away  by  the  rains,  leaving  the  rocks  bare,  while  broad  reaches  of 
formerly  fertile  lowlands  have  been  made  sterile  by  the  material  spread  over  them 
by  the  rains  that  swept  the  mountain  slopes. 

In  the  United  States  the  broad  original  forests  have  been  very  largely  cut  away, 
and  those  remaining  have  of  late  years  been  so  largely  reduced  by  indiscriminate 
cutting  and  the  ravages  of  carelessly  kindled  fires  that  great  alarm  is  felt  as  to  the 
future  of  the  lumber  supply.  Within  recent  years  vigorous  efforts  have  been  made 
to  overcome  this  growing  evil.  The  American  Forestry  Association,  founded  in 
1882,  its  purpose  being  the  conservative  use  of  our  forest  resources,  has  now  over 
5,000  members,  residents  of  every  state,  and  of  Canada  and  foreign  countries.  The 
first  State  Forest  Commission  was  organized  by  New  York  in  1885  and  has  now  a 
very  large  forest  reserve  set  aside  in  the  Adirondacks.  Pennsylvania  has  also  large 
forest  reserves  in  its  mountain  districts,  and  many  other  states  have  taken  similar 
action.  The  art  of  forestry  is  also  being  taught  in  the  schools,  and  a  large  body  of 
skilled  foresters  are  now  in  the  service  of  the  states  and  the  general  government.  In 
the  new  and  active  movement  for  the  conservation  of  national  resources  the  preserva- 
tion of  the  public  forests  ranks  high,  and  to  aid  in  this  purpose  the  government  has 
withdrawn  as  national  forest  areas  a  vast  amount  of  the  public  lands,  amounting 


268 


WHAT  IS  FORESTRY  WORK 


WHAT  IS  FORESTRY  WORK 


269 


270 WHAT  IS  FORESTRY  WORK 

at  the  present  time  to  192,931,197  acres,  an  area  about  equal  to  that  of  Texas  and 
Ohio  combined.  These  woodlands  are  under  the  charge  of  the  National  Forest 
Service  and  cared  for  by  about  3,000  men,  of  whom  250  are  professional  foresters. 
The  trees  in  these  forests  are  cut  with  careful  discrimination,  and  new  trees  are 
planted  to  take  their  place,  there  being  forest  nurseries  containing  about  20,000,000 
plants  and  capable  of  supplying  18,000,000  a  year.  New  York  has  1,600,000  acres 
in  its  forest  reserve,  Pennsylvania  over  920,000,  and  the  reserves  of  the  other  states 
amount  to  a  very  considerable  area. 

How  did  the  Fashion  of  Wearing  Cravats  Commence? 

Cravats  get  their  name  from  the  French  "cravate,"  meaning  a  croat,  because 
this  piece  of  dress  was  adopted  in  the  eleventh  century  from  the  Croats  who  entered 
the  French  service.  Towards  the  end  of  the  eighteenth  and  the  beginning  of  the 
nineteenth  century  the  cravat  attained  an  incredible  degree  of  extravagance,  but 
common  sense  at  last  brought  in  the  simpler  style  of  neckties  that  has  since  prevailed. 

How  does  the  Gas  Meter  Measure  Your  Gas? 

The  quantity  of  gas  used  by  each  consumer  is  measured  by  an  instrument  called 
a  meter,  of  which  there  are  two  classes — the  wet  and  the  dry. 

The  wet  meter  is  composed  of  an  outer  box  about  three-fifths  filled  with  water. 
Within  this  is  a  revolving  four-chambered  drum,  each  chamber  being  capable  of 
containing  a  definite  quantity  of  gas,  which  is  admitted  through  a  pipe  in  the  center 
of  the  meter,  and,  owing  to  the  arrangement  of  the  partitions  of  the  chambers,  causes 
the  drum  to  maintain  a  constant  revolution.  This  sets  in  motion  a  train  of  wheels 
carrying  the  hands  over  the  dials  which  mark  the  quantity  of  gas  consumed. 

The  dry  meter  consists  of  two  or  three  chambers,  each  divided  by  a  flexible 
partition  or  diaphragm,  by  the  motion  of  which  the  capacity  on  one  side  is  dimin- 
ished while  that  on  the  other  is  increased.  By  means  of  slide  valves,  like  those  of  a 
steam  engine,  worked  by  the  movement  of  the  diaphragms,  the  gas  to  be  measured 
passes  alternately  in  and  out  of  each  space.  The  contractions  and  expansions  set 
in  motion  the  clockwork  which  marks  the  rate  of  consumption.  The  diaphragms 
in  all  the  chambers  are  so  connected  that  they  move  in  concert. 

What  is  a  Game  Preserve? 

Game  preserves  have  only  been  introduced  comparatively  recently  in  the  United 
States,  for  the  hunting  grounds  have  been  freely  open  to  the  hunter,  but  they  have 
been  common  in  Britain  and  other  countries  of  Europe  for  centuries. 

Their  purpose  here  is  the  preservation  and  increase  of  wild  animals  instead  of 
their  destruction. 

tDeer  parks  have  long  been  kept  in  this  country,  but  the  first  systematic 
attempt  to  foster  wild  game  was  made  about  1860  by  Judge  J.  D.  Caton  in  a  park  of 
Ottawa,  111. 

Chief  among  those  that  followed  on  a  large  scale  is  the  great  game  park  of  Austin 
Corbin,  near  Newport,  N.  H.,  an  enclosure  of  36,000  acres,  in  which  a  wire  fence 
eight  feet  high  encloses  an  oblong  tract  twelve  by  five  miles,  through  which  passes  a 
mountain  range  3,000  feet  high.  American  game  of  all  kinds  are  kept  here,  from 
buffalo,  elk,  and  moose  to  the  smaller  and  more  timid  varieties,  and  there  has  been  a 
rapid  increase. 

Dr.  J.  Seward  Webb  has  a  9,000-acre  preserve  in  the  Adirondacks,  and  various 
other  large  parks  have  been  established  elsewhere,  in  which  our  fast-disappearing 
game  animals  are  augmenting  in  numbers  and  game  birds  of  foreign  origin  have 
been  introduced. 


The  Story  of  the  Building  of  a  Silo* 

What  is  a  Silo? 

A  silo  is  a  place  or  receptacle  for  storing  green  feed  to  preserve  it  for  future 
feeding  on  the  farm.  In  this  way  green  fodder,  such  as  corn  and  similar  crops,  are 
preserved  in  a  green  state  to  be  fed  in  the  winter  or  next  summer  during  an  extremely 
dry  season.  The  silo  has  the  same  relation  to  cattle  feed  as  the  glass  fruit  jar  that 
mother  uses  has  to  the  food  she  preserves  in  it. 

The  First  Silo. 

Silos  have  been  used  since  very  early  times  in  one  form  or  the  other,  and  probably 
the  first  we  have  ever  heard  of  are  traceable  back  in  ancient  history  to  the  Syrians, 
who  had  pits  in  the  ground  for  the  storage  of  animal  feed.  These  pits  have  been 
used  in  various  parts  of  the  Old  World  ever  since  and  have  also  been  used  in  the 
United  States.  The  pit  does  not  give  the  best  results. 

In  order  to  overcome  these  defects  we  soon  began  to  see  silos  erected  above  ground. 
Cement,  brick,  tile  and  wood  were  used  as  building  material,  with  various  results. 
The  industry  developed  rapidly  and  soon  demonstrated  what  was  necessary  to  keep 
the  silage  pure,  sweet,  clean  and  succulent.  Science  and  research  have  helped,  until 
now  we  can  produce  silos  that  will  keep  this  green  fodder  in  a  sweet  and  succulent 
state  until  the  owner  is  ready  to  use  it. 

What  is  Put  in  the  Silo? 

The  principal  silage  crop  is  corn,  but  in  different  parts  of  the  country  there  are 
other  crops  which  can  be  used  to  great  advantage  as  substitutes  for  corn.  Among 
these  are  kaffir  corn,  sorghum,  alfalfa,  clover,  millet,  cowpeas,  soy-beans,  sugar 
beets,  oats  and  even  weeds  and  thistles.  All  of  these  make  good  silage  when  properly 
harvested  and  stored.  Any  green  fodder  can  be  mixed  with  the  above  to  make 
quantity  and  secure  good  results.  The  main  point  to  be  remembered  is  that  the 
crops  to  be  put  away  in  the  silo  must  contain  a  certain  percentage  of  sugar  and 
starch  in  every  combination. 

Elements  of  Success  or  Failure. 

There  are  several  things  to  be  remembered  by  farmers  when  putting  fodder 
into  the  silo,  if  they  want  to  have  perfect  silage  to  take  out.  One  of  the  main  things 
is  to  see  that  the  silage  is  cut  to  proper  lengths,  which  would  be  about  half-inch  or 
one-inch  pieces.  It  should  also  be  well  packed,  especially  next  to  the  wall  of  the 
silo.  It  should  have  a  certain  amount  of  moisture,  which  it  naturally  would  have 
if  put  in  at  maturity.  Good  silage  is  a  result  of  proper  cutting,  proper  packing  and 
a  correct  amount  of  moisture,  because  when  the  silage  is  stored  it  begins  to  ferment. 
Heat  is  generated  in  the  process  of  fermentation.  If  the  heat  is  lost  through  the 
silo  wall,  the  fermentation  is  not  correct.  If  the  silage  is  not  packed  properly  and 
tightly,  especially  next  to  the  wall,  it  does  not  settle  in  a  compact  mass  and  air  is 
admitted  that  spoils  the  silage;  or  if  the  silo  wall  is  porous  this  is  apt  to  occur. 
All  these  things  must  be  guarded  against  or  a  great  loss  to  the  owner  is  probable. 

*  Illustrations  by  courtesy  of  the  McClure  Co. 

(271) 


272        THE  STORY  OF  THE  BUILDING  OF  A  SILO 


A  MODERN  REDWOOD  SILO  WITH  STEEL  DOME  ROOF 


The  Story  of  the  Advance  of  Electricity* 

It  is  often  remarked  that  the  history  of  electrical  development  is  the  history 
of  modern  industrial  development.  This  is  true,  except  that  the  terms  should  be 
reversed.  Electric  lighting  was  not  invented  to  equip  skyscrapers  and  the  huge 
apartment  buildings  of  today.  In  point  of  fact,  the  invention  of  these  structures 
was  possible  only  because  electric  light  already  existed.  Electric  motive  power 
was  not  devised  to  supply  the  great  manufacturing  establishments  of  the  present. 
On  the  contrary,  such  institutions  were  erected  precisely  because  such  a  thing  as 
the  electric  motor  was  available.  The  history  of  modern  industry  is  thus  seen 
emphatically  to  be  the  history  of  electricity. 

The  First  Commercial  Central  Station. 

The  first  central  station  for  the  commercial  distribution  of  electricity  was  set 
going  on  the  4th  of  September,  1882,  by  Thomas  Edison  himself,  at  257  Pearl  Street, 
New  York  City.  Newspapers  of  the  following  day  had  much  to  say.  Wonder  was 
expressed  over  the  "  blazing  horseshoe  that  glowed  within  a  pear-shaped  globe." 
Another  told  of  "the  dim  flicker  of  gas  supplanted  by  a  steady  glare,  bright  and 
mellow."  A  third  observed,  "As  soon  as  it  is  dark  enough  to  need  artificial  light, 
you  turn  the  thumb-screw  and  the  light  is  there;  no  nauseous  smell,  no  flicker,  no 
glare." 

Among  the  five  or  six  buildings  supplied  with  the  new  lighting  were  the  Herald 
offices  and  the  Drexel  Building,  at  the  time  one  of  New  York  City's  show  places. 
The  illumination  of  the  latter  was  held  to  be  a  truly  momentous  achievement  owing 
to  its  great  size.  The  equipment,  in  other  words,  reached  the  grand  total  of  106 
lamps.  In  comparison,  it  is  interesting  to  mention  the  lighting  equipment  of  the 
new  Municipal  Building,  in  New  York  City,  numbering  something  over  15,000  lamps. 

The  Old  Pearl  Street  Plant. 

This  primitive  central  station  in  Pearl  Street  was  a  converted  warehouse  of 
brick  construction,  four  stories  high,  and  it  was  separated  in  two  parts  by  a  fire  wall. 
One  of  these  parts  was  used  for  the  storing  of  underground  supplies,  while  the  other 
was  occupied  by  the  generating  machinery,  for  the  support  of  which  a  special  founda- 
tion of  steel  and  concrete  was  provided.  The  necessary  steam  boilers  were  accom- 
modated in  the  basement,  while  the  second  floor  was  occupied  by  six  generators 
of  125  horse-power  each,  nicknamed  "Jumbos." 

Simple  as  sounds  this  original  Edison  equipment,  it  nevertheless  represented 
years  of  research  and  experimenting  on  the  part  of  Edison  and  those  associated 
with  him. 

Edison  and  the  Electric  Light. 

In  1878  Thomas"A.  Edison,  at  his  experimental  laboratory  at  Menlo  Park,  New 
Jersey,  where  he  had  already  invented  the  carbon  telephone  transmitter  and  many 
other  things,  undertook  the  task  of  devising  a  general  system  for  the  generation, 
distribution  and  utilization  of  electricity  for  lighting  and  power  purposes. 

The  first  marked  accomplishment  in  operative  detail  was  a  lamp  with  a  platinum 
wire  burner  of  high  resistance,  protected  by  a  high  vacuum  in  an  all-glass  globe, 

*  Illustrations  by  courtesy  of  New  York  Edison  Co.,  unless  otherwise  indicated. 

M  (273) 


274        STORY  OF  THE  ADVANCE  OF  ELECTRICITY 


Photo  by  Brown  Bros.  "THE   GREAT  WHITE   WAY" 

Times  Square,  New  York,  at  night,  with  Broadway  on  the  left,  a  curving 
ribbon  of  white  light.  Here  every  night  in  winter  thousands  upon  thousands  of 
people  throng  to  theaters  and  cafe's. 


STORY  OF  THE  ADVANCE  OF  ELECTRICITY 


275 


and  with  the  leading-in  wires  sealed  into  the  glass  by  fusion.  Such  a  lamp  neces- 
sarily had  a  small  illuminating  power  compared  with  that  of  the  arc  light,  which 
was  the  only  electric  light  then  in  commercial  use. 

The  next  step  in  the  development  of  Mr.  Edison's  electric-lighting  system  was 
taken  on  October  21,  1879,  when  he  discovered  that  if  a  carbonized  cotton  thread 
were  substituted  as  a  burner  for  the  platinum  wire  of  his  earlier  lamp,  the  slender 
and  apparently  frail  carbon  was  mechanically  strong,  and  also  durable  under  the 
action  of  the  electric  current.  The  announcement  of  the  invention  of  the  carbon 
filament  lamp  was  first  made  to  the  public  in  December,  1879. 

With  the  experience  gained  by  an  experimental  system  at  Menlo  Park,  Mr. 
Edison  began,  in  the  spring  of  1881,  at  the  Edison  Machine  Works,  Goerck  Street, 


STEAM  DYNAMO  IN  EDISON'S  OLD  STATION 

New  York  City,  the  construction  of  the  first  successful  direct-connected  steam 
dynamo.  The  development  of  an  adequate  underground  conduit  proved  also  most 
serious.  The  district  selected  for  lighting  was  the  area — nearly  a  square  mile  in 
extent — included  between  Wall,  Nassau,  Spruce,  and  Ferry  Streets,  Peck  Slip  and 
the  East  River  in  New  York  City.  In  those  days  such  electrical  transmission  as 
existed — this  of  course  related  largely  to  telegraphy — was  accomplished  by  means 
of  a  veritable  forest  of  poles  and  wires  augmented  by  the  distribution  equipments 
of  fire  alarm,  telephone,  burglar  alarm  and  stock  ticker  companies.  So  used  had 
people  become  to  this  sort  of  thing  that  even  the  most  competent  electrical  authorities 
of  the  time  doubted  extremely  whether  Edison's  scheme  of  an  underground  system 
could  be  made  either  a  scientific  or  a  commercial  success,  owing  to  the  danger  of 
great  loss  through  leakage.  However,  the  Edison  conduits  once  in  use,  both  the 
public  and  even  the  telephone,  telegraph  and  ticker  companies  acknowledged  their 
feasibility.  Such,  in  fact,  was  the  success  of  the  new  method  that  the  city  compelled 
at  length  the  removal  of  all  telegraph  poles. 

In  the  Trenches. 

The  systematic  laying  out  of  street  mains  in  the  first  company  district  was 
begun  in  the  summer  of  1881.     It  must  not  be  thought,  of  course,  that  these  old- 


276        STORY  OF  THE  ADVANCE  OF  ELECTRICITY 

time  conduits  resembled  strikingly  those  of  the  present  day.  The  method  then  used 
was  to  dig  a  trench  in  which  were  laid  the  pipes  measuring  twenty  feet  in  length. 
Through  these  the  conductors  were  drawn,  two  half-round  copper  wires  kept  in 
place  first  by  heavy  cardboard  and  afterward  by  rope.  The  conductors  having 
been  drawn  in,  a  preparation  of  asphaltum  and  linseed  oil  was  forced  into  the  piping 
to  serve  as  insulation.  The  spending  of  three  and  four  arduous  nights  a  week  in 
these  trenches  by  Mr.  Edison  and  his  associates  suggests  the  rigor  of  the  later 
European  warfare.  This  work,  together  with  that  incident  to  the  operation  of  the 
new  station,  often  proved  too  much  even  for  Edison's  phenomenal  endurance.  At 
such  times  he  slept  on  a  cot  close  beside  the  running  engines,  while  the  rest  of  the 
crew  crawled  in  on  the  lower  row  of  field-magnet  coils  of  the  dynamos,  a  place  warm 


THE  DYNAMO  ROOM  OP  THE  FIRST  EDISON  ELECTRIC  LIGHTING  STATION  IN  NEW  YORK 

enough,  though  a  trifle  bumpy.  One  of  the  inventor's  early  assistants  tells  of  going 
to  sleep  standing  up,  leaning  against  a  door  frame — this,  after  forty-eight  hours 
of  uninterrupted  work. 

September  4th  saw  a  full  400  lamps  turned  on  from  the  Pearl  Street  station. 
From  that  day  on  the  station  supplied  current  continuously  until  1895,  with  but 
two  brief  interruptions.  One  of  these  happened  in  1883  and  lasted  three  hours. 
The  other  resulted  from  the  serious  fire  of  January  2,  1890,  and  lasted  less  than  half 
a  day.  The  record  in  the  second  case  would  appear  astounding,  as  no  less  a  handicap 
occurred  than  the  burning  down  of  the  station  itself.  The  situation  was  saved, 
however,  by  the  presence  of  an  auxiliary  plant  that  had  already  been  opened  on 
Liberty  Street. 

Edison  as  a  Central  Station  Pioneer. 

The  layman,  while  appreciating  the  tremendous  advance  in  generating  machinery 
since  the  early  eighties,  is  surprised  to  learn  that  the  great  Edison  system  of  today 
is  conducted  upon  principles  that  Edison  developed  and  put  into  practice  at  that 


STORY  OF  THE  ADVANCE  OF  ELECTRICITY 


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278        STORY  OF  THE  ADVANCE  OF  ELECTRICITY 


time.  Edison's,  in  truth,  was  the  master  mind,  the  forming  spirit  of  all  the  advances 
made  in  the  seventies  and  eighties.  Exceedingly  much,  on  the  other  hand,  is  due 
the  energy  of  his  fellow  workers,  many  of  whom  figure  conspicuously  in  the  country's 
electrical  affairs  at  present. 

In  this  manner  Edison  and  his  assistants  became  established  in  New  York  City. 
Current  at  first  was  supplied  free  to  customers  for  approximately  five  months,  which 
speaks  quite  as  much  for  Edison's  Scotch  "canniness"  as  for  his  inventive  genius. 
Well  before  the  period  was  over  the  new  illuminant  had  justified  itself,  until  today 
it  shows  itself  an  element  indispensable  in  every  phase  of  the  country's  activity. 

Early  Growth. 

Within  two  years  from  the  opening  of  the  station  the  demand  for  service  had 
so  increased  that  over  one  hundred  applications  were  filed  in  excess  of  what  could 


ELECTRIC  DELIVERY  WAGONS  LOADING  EDISON  LAMPS 

be  accepted,  because  the  plant  was  taxed  already  to  its  utmost  capacity.  Allusion 
has  already  been  made  to  the  auxiliary  plant  at  Liberty  Street,  a  station  of  2,000 
lights'  capacity  which  was  instituted  in  1886.  By  1887,  not  only  a  second  but  a  third 
district  had  been  mapped  out,  the  whole  extending  from  Eighteenth  to  Forty-fifth 
Street.  All  the  underground  system  in  the  two  new  districts  was  laid  according 
to  Edison's  new  three-wire  patent;  and  it  was  presently  announced  that  customers 
would  be  supplied  with  power  as  well  as  with  light. 

Six  months  after  the  disastrous  fire  of  1890,  in  which  the  Pearl  Street  station 
was  burned,  the  site  was  chosen  for  the  Edison  Duane  Street  building  on  which 
operations  were  so  hastened  that  machines  were  installed  and  current  turned  on  the 
first  of  May  the  following  year. 

The  Waterside  Stations. 

For  some  time  the  need  of  a  central  generating  plant  had  been  apparent  to  all 
familiar  with  the  company's  facilities  and  prospects.  ^  Already  during  the  summer 
of  1898  an  engineering  commission  had  visited  all  the  chief  electrical  stations  of  Europe 
and  consulted  the  best-known  experts  of  the  industry,  and  in  1902  the  first  water- 
side station  in  New  York  was  opened  upon  a  site  bordering  the  East  River  between 


STORY  OF  THE  ADVANCE  OF  ELECTRICITY        279 

Thirty-eighth  and  Thirty-ninth  Streets.  The  new  operating  room  contained  sixteen 
vertical  engines  with  a  capacity  each  of  over  5,000  horse-power.  From  these  current 
was  generated  by  3,500  kilowatt  generators  and  sent  out  to  the  various  distributing 
centers. 

As  a  very  natural  consequence  of  su*ch  development,  the  company  by  1902 
had  420  miles  of  underground  system  supplying  installation  amounting  to  1,928,090 
fifty-watt  equivalents. 

Electricity  a  Living  Factor. 

To  talk  about  electrical  development  in  terms  of  power  consumed  tells  but 
one  side  of  the  story.  More  impressive  even  than  figures  are  the  immense  number 


ELECTRIC  SEWING  MACHINES  IN  THE  MANHATTAN  TRADE  SCHOOL 

of  uses  to  which  electricity  is  put.  Electric  lighting,  introduced  in  1882,  has  become 
practically  the  standard  for  illumination,  not  only  here,  but  for  the  entire  civilized 
world. 

In  the  Printing  Trade. 

Electric  power  was  introduced,  timidly,  by  way  of  a  few  fans  in  1884  and  fol- 
lowing this,  in  1888,  motor  drive  for  printing  presses  was  undertaken.  At  the  present 
moment  in  New  York  City  there  is  hardly  a  printing  establishment  worthy  the  name 
that  is  not  electrically  operated  throughout.  Among  the  largest  customers  of  the 
central  station  in  New  York  City  are  the  great  daily  newspapers,  among  them  the 
Times,  the  World,  the  Sun,  the  Evening  Post,  and  the  American. 

Construction. 

Not  only  are  passengers  conveyed  up  and  down  by  electric  elevators  in  sky- 
scrapers, but  the  buildings  themselves  are  erected  by  means  of  electricity.  Recent 
examples  of  such  construction  are  the  Woolworth  and  Equitable  buildings  in  New 


280        STORY  OF  THE  ADVANCE  OF  ELECTRICITY 


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STORY  OF  THE  ADVANCE  OF  ELECTRICITY        281 

York  City;    in  this  last  instance  a  thousand  horse-power  was  used  in  digging  the 
foundations  alone. 

Not  only  are  New  York  City's  subways  operated  by  electricity;  they  were  also 
built  by  electricity,  a  statement  which  applies  to  the  new  subways  as  well  as  the 
parts  of  the  first  system.  In  digging  for  the  new  Broadway  subway,  an  electric 
company  supplied  25,000  horse-power.  The  mammoth  new  aqueduct  system  by 
which  water  is  carried  from  the  Catskills  to  the  Battery  is  another  example  of  elec- 
tricity as  a  source  of  power  for  large  construction  work.  Still  more  picturesque 
is  the  use  of  electricity  in  building  the  under-river  tubes.  Indeed,  it  is  doubtful 
whether  this  particular  form  of  operation  could  have  been  carried  on  without  the 
aid  of  electricity. 

Loft  Manufacturing. 

Aside  from  these  special  instances  of  electricity  in  construction,  one  must  think 
of  electricity  as  responsible  for  nearly  all  the  manufacturing,  large  and  small,  that 
goes  on  in  the  ever-increasing  number  of  loft-buildings  throughout  all  large  cities. 
For  example,  New  York  City  serves  as  the  center  of  the  garment-making  industry 
for  the  entire  country,  there  being  fully  a  quarter  of  a  million  garment-trade  workers 
in  the  Greater  City.  Along  Fifth  and  Fourth  Avenues  are  found  the  large  estab- 
lishments, electrically  equipped  throughout  for  cutting,  stitching  and  pressing,  while 
even  in  the  smallest  shops  on  the  East  Side  foot-power  machines  have  become  almost- 
a  thing  of  the  past. 

Electric  Heating. 

The  commercial  use  of  electric  heating  is  one  of  the  more  recent  electrical  develop-^ 
oients.  For  the  most  part,  this  also  applies  to  the  garment  trade  and  its  closely  allied 
clothing  industries.  In  the  modernly  equipped  factories  one  finds  electric  flat  irons, 
velvet  steamers  and  coffee  urns.  In  the  printing  trade,  electrically  heated  linotype 
melting  pots  are  being  introduced  successfully,  while  glue-pots  and  sealing-wax 
melters  can  be  seen  in  binderies  and  banking  institutions.  Absence  of  fire  risk 
accounts  for  the  introduction  of  electric  heating  units  of  different  kinds  into  the 
motion-picture  film  manufacturing  industry,  a  rapidly  growing  province.  The 
same  element  of  safety  where  inflammable  substances  are  employed  has  produced 
the  electric  japan  oven  and  similar  apparatus. 

Electricity  and  Safety. 

The  importance  of  electricity  in  factory  work  cannot  be  over-estimated.  A 
shop  fully  equipped  with  electric  machinery  is  the  best  possible  kind  of  shop  for 
employee  as  well  as  for  the  owner.  Motor-driven  machines  are  the  safest  possible 
kind,  while  absence  of  overhead  shafting  and  dangerous  belts  mean  health  as  well 
as  security.  In  the  electric  shop,  motor-driven  blowers  carry  fumes  and  dust  away 
from  the  worker  and  bring  fresh  air  in.  Electrically  driven  machinery  is  now  regarded 
as  the  standard  machinery.  In  the  various  vocational  schools  in  New  York  City 
at  present  both  boys  and  girls  are  taught  to  operate  electrically  driven  machines, 
it  being  assumed  that  those  will  be  what  the  pupils  will  be  called  upon  to  operate 
when  they  leave  the  school  for  the  shop. 

Electricity  in  Medicine. 

Another  domain  of  electric  enterprise  of  the  greatest  value  for  the  country  at 
large  is  the  increasing  use  of  electricity  in  medicine.  The  most  conspicuous  element 
in  this  is  the  wide-spread  acceptance  of  the  X-ray  as  a  necessary  tool  of  the  medical 
profession.  Newspapers  and  magazines  were  full  of  the  remarkable  X-ray  achieve- 


282        STORY  OF  THE  ADVANCE  OF  ELECTRICITY 

ments  of  surgeons  in  charge  of  the  various  European  war  hospitals.  Those  of 
course,  were  spectacular  instances,  but  it  should  not  be  forgotten  that  every  day 
in  our  great  hospitals,  the  X-ray  is  proving  itself  almost  indispensable  in  the  exami- 
nation of  the  sick  and  injured.  Besides  utilizing  X-ray  in  the  diagnosis  of  disease 
the  rays  themselves  are  employed  in  treatment  of  cancer  and  skin  diseases.  The 
oculist,  the  dentist,  indeed  medical  specialists  of  all  kinds,  are  coming  to  recognize 
the  immense  aid  that  electricity  can  give  in  its  various  forms  and  applications. 

Electric  Vehicles. 

The  electric  truck  has  already  demonstrated  itself  as  a  safer  and  less  expensive 
rival  of  the  gasoline  delivery  truck  in  many  kinds  of  service.     In  the  boroughs  of 


THE  GREAT  PRESS  ROOM  OF  "THE  NEW  YORK  TIMES"  is  ALL  ELECTRICALLY  OPERATED 


Manhattan  and  the  Bronx  alone,  in  New  York  City,  there  were  more  than  2,000 
such  trucks  in  operation  in  1916.  Counting  both  pleasure  and  business  vehicles, 
the  borough  of  Manhattan  boasted  about  2,500  storage-battery  driven  wagons  in 
active  use.  It  is  rather  interesting  to  note  that  Chicago  operates  many  more  electric 
pleasure  cars  than  New  York,  while  New  York  does  far  more  of  its  business  by  means 
of  the  electric  vehicle.  ^Recently,  there  was  established  in  New  York  an  electric 
co-operative  garage,  the  joint  enterprise  of  the  electric  passenger  car  manufacturers 
and  an  electric  company.  It  was  believed  that  by  providing  proper  and  adequate 
facilities  for  garaging  electric  pleasure  vehicles  the  use  of  passenger-electrics  in 
New  York  City  would  be  greatly  increased. 

Electricity  and  the  Home. 

In  emphasizing  the  important  part  which  electricity  plays  in  the  business  of  a 
great  metropolis,  the  home  should  not  be  forgotten.     It  is  now  possible,  by  means 


STORY  OF  THE  ADVANCE  OF  ELECTRICITY        283 


ELECTRIC  TRAIN  CHART  AND  SWITCH  CONTROL 


SUBWAY  CONSTRUCTION 

In  the  upper  view  the  electric  chart  on  the  wall  facing  the  switch  operator  indicates 
the  location  of  every  train  in  the  New  York  subway  system  at  all  times.  The  lower 
view  shows  typical  subway  construction  for  third  rail  train  and  surface  cars.  The 
material  used  is  reinforced  concrete. 


284        STORY  OF  THE  ADVANCE  OF  ELECTRICITY 


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STORY  OF  THE  ADVANCE  OF  ELECTRICITY        285 

of  electric  appliances,  practically  to  eliminate  all  drudgery  from  housework.  The 
use  of  many  of  these  domestic  machines  is  familiar  to  all:  vacuum  cleaners,  washing 
machines,  fans,  and  the  more  usual  electric  cooking  devices.  Within  the  next  decade, 
one  looks  to  see  a  remarkable  advance  in  this  direction.  One  anticipates  the  more 
extensive  use  of  electric  refrigeration  and  other  electric  labor-saving  devices,  to  the 
great  improvement  of  city  homes,  making  them  pleasanter  and  more  healthy  as 
toilsome  operations  are  done  away  with.  And  it  must  not  be  forgotten  that  the 
city  home,  like  the  country  home,  is  the  backbone  of  the  well-being  of  the  community. 
Electricity  can  have  no  greater  mission  than  improving,  strengthening  and  upbuilding 
good  homes. 

Decreased  Cost  of  Electricity. 

Closely  akin  to  this  is  another  electrical  development  most  pleasing  to  consider. 
Years  ago,  electricity  was  considered  the  luxury  of  the  rich.  Now  electric  light  is 
coming  to  be  shed  on  rich  and  poor  alike.  Little  by  little  the  shops,  factories  and 
dwellings  of  more  humble  inhabitants  are  provided  with  electricity,  so  that  cleanliness, 
safety  and  comfort  are  by  no  means  confined  even  to  the  well-to-do  or  the  more 
comfortable  homes. 

One  great  factor  in  this  change  has  been  the  decreasing  cost  of  electricity. 
Within  the  last  decade,  the  cost  of  almost  all  necessities  of  life  has  ascended  with 
leaps  and  bounds,  so  that  a  dollar  now,  expended  in  ordinary  household  goods,  will 
purchase  hardly  more  than  what  thirty  cents  would  in  1890.  But  all  this  while, 
the  cost  of  electricity  has  steadily  decreased.  With  centralized  generating  plants, 
improved  machinery  and  better  lamps,  one  dollar  today  will  buy  eighteen  times  as 
much  electric  light  as  it  would  in  1884.  With  such  facts  before  us,  it  is  fairly  easy 
to  predict  the  still  further  electrical  development- of  all  important  centers.  There 
will  be  more  and  better  light  in  homes;  there  will  be  more  and  better  light  in  offices 
and  factories,  thus  greatly  lessening  the  chances  for  injury  or  eye-strain.  In  all 
industry,  great  and  small,  laborious  hand  processes  will  be  replaced  by  safely  operated 
electric  machinery,  while  wider  use  of  electric  labor-saving  appliances  will  extend 
into  the  home. 

Hospitals,  by  aid  of  electricity,  will  be  able  to  increase  still  more  their  splendid 
work  for  the  relief  of  suffering,  while  cleaner  and  safer  ways  of  living  will  serve  as  a 
preventive  of  disease.  One  can  easily  say  that  with  increasing  electrical  develop- 
ment the  country  will  come  to  be  still  greater,  a  country  where  electricity  shall  provide 
for  the  safety  and  well-being  of  all  its  people, 


How  is  Die-Sinking  Done? 

Die-sinking  is  the  art  of  preparing  dies  for  stamping  coins,  buttons,  medallions, 
jewelry,  fittings,  etc.  The  steel  for  the  manufacture  of  dies  is  carefully  selected, 
forged  at  a  high  heat  into  the  rough  die,  softened  by  careful  annealing,  and  then 
handed  over  to  the  engraver.  After  the  engraver  has  worked  out  the  design  in  intaglio 
the  die  is  put  through  the  operation  of  hardening,  after  which,  being  cleaned  and 
polished,  it  is  called  a  "matrix."  This  is  not,  however,  generally  employed  in  multi- 
plying impressions,  but  is  used  for  making  a  "punch"  or  steel  impression  for  relief. 
For  this  purpose  another  block  of  steel  of  the  same  quality  is  selected,  and,  being 
carefully  annealed  or  softened,  is  compressed  by  proper  machinery  upon  the  matrix 
until  it  receives  the  impression.  When  this  process  is  complete  the  impression  is 
retouched  by  the  engraver,  and  hardened  and  collared  like  the  matrix.  Any  number 
of  dies  may  now  be  made  from  this  punch  by  impressing  upon  it  plugs  of  soft  steel. 


The  Story  in  the  Making  of  a  Magazine* 

The  printing  of  a  few  thousand  copies  of  one  of  the  great  American  magazines 
would  not  be  a  difficult  feat  for  any  large  first-class  printing  plant.  The  putting  of 
the  pages  into  type  and  running  them  through  the  modern  job  presses  could  easily 
be  accomplished.  But  when,  instead  of  a  few  thousand  copies,  millions  of  copies  of 
the  magazine  are  printed,  and  these  millions  are  produced  unfailingly,  week  after 


ONE  OP  THE  SCORES  OF  PRESSES  ON  WHICH  THE  INSIDE  PAGES  OP  "THE  SATURDAY  EVENING 

POST"  ARE  PRINTED 

week,  month  after  month,  in  a  quality  of  printing  rivaling  the  production  of  but  a  few 
thousand  copies,  then,  indeed,  is  it  marvelous  how  results  are  attained. 

Obviously,  one  of  the  first  necessities  toward?  such  quantity  production  is  extra 
speed.  This  is  secured  to  a  certain  degree  by  feeding  the  paper  into  the  presses  from 
rolls  instead  of  sheet  by  sheet.  But  as  the  quality  of  the  print  must  be  retained, 
there  is  a  limit  in  this  speeding  beyond  which  it  is  not  safe  to  go.  Some  other  method 
of  increasing  the  production  without  lowering  the  quality  of  the  printed  sheet  must 
be  resorted  to-^-and  this  is  duplication.  By  the  process  of  electrotyping,  plates  of 
metal  duplicating  exactly  the  printing  surface  of  the  type  and  engravings  in  the 
original  page,  can  be  made.  By  providing  as  many  presses  as  may  be  needed,  and  by 
supplying  each  press  with  duplicates,  or  electrotype  plates  as  they  are  called,  the 

*  Illustrations  by  courtesy  of  The  Curtis  Publishing  Co. 

(286) 


STORY  IN  THE  MAKING  OF  A  MAGAZINE 


287 


problem  of  vast  quantity  requirements  has  been  solved,  so  far  as  the  actual  printing 
is  concerned. 

But  there  are  other  factors  to  be  considered.  For  example,  the  printed  sheets, 
as  they  come  from  the  press,  must  be  folded  to  the  size  of  the  magazine.  This  is  done 
in  two  ways.  Machines  which  take  the  sheets,  one  by  one,  from  the  completed  pile, 
and  fold  them  to  the  required  size,  are  used  on  some  publications,  while  on  others  a 
folding  machine  and  a  binding  attachment  are  included  as  integral  parts  of  the  press 
itself.  The  paper,  as  it  comes  from  the  printing  section  of  the  press,  is  mechanically 
folded,  cut  apart,  the  previously-printed  cover  sheet  wrapped  around  it,  and  the 
whole  stapled  together  with  wire  stitches.  Thus  the  white  paper,  which  enters  the 
press  from  the  roll  in  one  long  ribbon,  is  delivered  at  the  other  end  of  the  press 


ONE  OF  THE  SEVERAL  BATTERIES  OF  PRESSES  NECESSARY  TO  PRINT  "THE  LADIES'  HOME  JOURNAL" 

printed,  folded  and  bound  up  into  complete  magazines  at  the  rate  of  sixty  each 
minute.  Issues  of  a  magazine  of  thirty-two,  forty-eight,  or  even  more  pages,  are 
produced  in  this  manner. 

Many  magazines,  however,  have  more  pages  than  this.  Then  it  is  necessary 
.to  print  on  separate  presses  the  various  sections,  or  signatures  as  they  are  called, 
which,  when  combined,  will  make  up  a  complete  magazine.  If  only  a  few  thousand 
were  printed,  these  signatures  could  be  collected  together  by  hand,  and  then  fed 
into^  the  wire-stitching  machine,  also  by  hand.  This  method  of  collecting  the 
sections  and  binding  them  together  was  the  one  used  until  editions  became  so  large 
that  mechanical  methods  became  necessary. 

Now,  however,  the  various  sections  which  go  to  make  up  the  magazine  are  piled 
in  certain  troughs  of  a  binding  machine,  which,  with  seeming  human  intelligence, 
clasps  one  copy  of  each  section  in  turn,  and  combining  them  with  a  copy  of  the  cover 


288         STOR\    IN  THE  MAKING  OF  A  MAGAZINE 


STORY  IN  THE  MAKING  OF  A  MAGAZINE         289 

sheet,  conducts  them  all,  properly  collated,  into  the  wire-stitching  device,  from  which 
they  are  ejected  into  orderly  piles.  Some  magazines  are  bound  together  in  a  different 
manner,  however,  and  are  not  stitched  with  wire,  but  have  the  inside  pages  and  the 
cover  glued  together,  and  an  ingenious  binding  machine  has  been  perfected  which 
does  this  automatically. 

Another  marvel  of  the  periodical  of  our  day  is  the  printing  of  some  of  the  pages 
in  the  full  colors  of  the  original  paintings.  To  get  this  result,  it  is  necessary  to  print 
the  sheet  in  four  colors  and  to  have  each  printing  in  exactly  the  correct  spot  on  the 
sheet  (a  variation  of  only  a  hundredth  of  an  inch  being  detrimental).  The  process 
would  normally  be  quite  slow — too  slow,  in  fact,  for  the  tremendous  quantities  nec- 
essary for  the  large  editions  of  the  modern  magazine.  Both  of  these  objections  have 
been  overcome,  however,  by  arranging  four  small  cylinders,  each  printing  its  designated 
color — yellow,  red,  blue  or  black — so  that  as  the  sheet  of  paper  travels  around  a  larger 
cylinder  it  is  brought  into  contact  with  the  four  printing  cylinders  in  rapid  succession. 

Many  magazines  print  two  colors  for  covers  and  inside  pages,  instead  of  full 
four-color  printings.  Presses  of  a  nature  somewhat  similar  to  those  explained  above 
are  used. 

So  much  for  the  principal  mechanical  problems  and  their  solutions,  in  producing 
millions  of  magazines  of  a  high  quality  each  week.  But  there  must  be  some  force  that 
keeps  this  maze  of  machinery  constantly  at  work,  so  that  all  the  parts  properly 
co-ordinate.  A  slip-up  at  one  spot  might  cause  such  a  delay  as  would  result  if,  for 
instance,  hundreds  of  thousands  of  the  inside  pages  were  printed  and  raady  for  bind- 
ing, but  lacked  the  printed  covers.  To  prevent  any  such  calamity  in  the  work  rooms, 
there  is  usually  prepared  a  daily  schedule  which  plots  out  what  operation,  on  each 
issue  of  the  magazine,  is  to  be  completed  that  day;  and  if  by  chance  any  operation 
is  not  up  to  the  schedule,  immediate  steps  are  taken  to  speed  up  the  work  until  the 
production  has  been  brought  back  to  where  it  should  be. 

And  this  schedule  reaches  out  into  the  shipping  and  mailing  departments,  so 
arranging  it  that  the  first  copies  off  the  press  are  speeded  to  the  far  sections  of  the 
country.  In  this  way  all  the  copies  as  they  come  from  the  presses  are  dispatched, 
so  that  the  man  in  San  Francisco  and  the  man  in  Philadelphia  find  the  magazine  on 
the  news-stand  on  the  same  day, 


How  did  the  Ringing  of  the  Curfew  Originate? 

The  word  " curfew"  is  derived  from  the  French  "couvre-feu,"  meaning 
"cover  fire." 

The  ringing  of  the  curfew  originated  in  England  by  William  the  Conqueror, 
who  directed  that  at  the  ringing  of  the  bell  at  eight  o'clock  all  fires  and  lights  should 
be  extinguished.  The  law  was  repealed  by  Henry  I  in  1100,  but  the  bell  continued  to 
be  rung  in  many  districts  to  modern  times  and  probably  may  still  be  heard. 

The  name  was  also  given  formerly  to  a  domestic  utensil  for  covering  up  a  fire. 

In  the  United  States  an  ordinance  establishing  a  curfew,  with  the  purpose  of 
keeping  young  people  off  the  streets,  has  existed  in  Salem,  Mass.,  since  Puritan  days. 

Similar  ordinances  have  of  late  been  adopted  in  other  cities,  in  general  providing 
that  children  under  fifteen  shall  not  frequent  the  streets  after  nine  o'clock  in  summer 
and  eight  in  winter. 


The  Story  of  America's  First  Horseless 

Carriage 

Mr.  Elwood  Haynes  tells  an  interesting  story  of  his  first  "horseless  carriage:" 

In  1890  I  became  interested  in  the  natural  gas  field  at  Greentown,  Ind.  My 
work  took  me  through  the  country  a  great  deal,  and  I  drove  a  horse,  of  course.  The 
great  trouble  with  the  horse  was  his  lack  of  endurance,  and  this  became  more  apparent 
day  after  day. 

One  afternoon,  or  night,  rather,  while  driving  home  after  a  hard  day's  work, 
I  thought  to  myself  that  it  would  be  a  fine  thing  if  I  didn't  have  to  depend  on  the 
horse  for  locomotion.  From  then  on  my  mind  dwelt  a  great  deal  upon  the  subject 
of  a  self-propelled  vehicle  that  could  be  used  on  any  country  road  or  city  street. 

I  planned  to  use  the  gasoline  engine.  Even  the  lightest  engines  made  at  that 
time  were  very  heavy  per  unit  of  power,  and  rather  crude  in  construction. 

My  work  was  confined  to  Greentown,  Ind.,  in  1890  and  1891.  In  the  fall  of 
1892  I  moved  to  Kokomo,  and  the  following  summer  I  had  my  plans  sufficiently 
matured  to  begin  the  actual  construction  of  a  machine.  I  ordered  a  one-horse-power 
marine  upright,  two-cycle  gasoline  engine  from  the  Sintz  Gas  Engine  Company  of 
Grand  Rapids,  Mich. 

This  motor  barely  gave  one  brake  horse-power  and  weighed  180  pounds.  (It 
is  interesting  to  note  in  this  connection,  that  an  aeroplane  motor  of  the  same  weight 
readily  gives  forty  horse-power.)  Upon  its  arrival  from  Grand  Rapids,  in  the  fall  of 

1893,  lacking  a  more  suitable  place,  the  motor  was  brought  direct  to  my  home  and 
set  up  in  the  kitchen. 

When  the  gasoline  and  battery  connection  were  installed,  the  motor,  after  con- 
siderable cranking,  was  started  and  ran  with  such  speed  and  vibration  that  it  pulled 
itself  from  its  attachments  to  the  floor.  Luckily,  however,  one  of  the  battery  wires 
was  wound  about  the  motor  shaft  and  thus  disconnected  the  current.  In  order  to 

Erovide  against  vibration  I  was  obliged  to  make  the  frame  of  the  machine  much 
eavier  than  I  first  intended. 

The  machine  was  built  up  in  the  form  of  a  small  truck.  The  framework  in 
which  the  motor  was  placed  consisted  of  a  double  "hollow  square"  of  steel  tubing, 
joined  at  the  rear  corners  by  steel  castings  and  by  malleable  castings  in  front.  The 
hind  axle  constituted  the  rear  member  of  the  frame  and  the  front  axle  was  swiveled 
at  its  center  to  the  front  end  of  the  "hollow  square,"  in  which  the  motor  and  counter- 
shaft were  placed. 

The  total  weight  of  the  machine  when  completed  was  about  820  pounds.    July  4, 

1894,  when  ready  for  test,  it  was  hauled  into  the  country  about  three  miles,  behind 
a  horse  carriage,  and  started  on  a  nearly  level  turnpike. 

It  moved  off  at  once  at  a  speed  of  about  seven  miles  per  hour,  and  was  driven 
about  one  and  one-h&  if  miles  farther  into  the  country.  It  was  then  turned  about, 
and  ran  all  the  way  into  the  city  without  making  a  single  stop. 

I  was  convinced  upon  this  return  trip  that  there  was  a  future  for  the  "horseless 
carriage,"  although  I  did  not  at  that  time  expect  it  to  be  so  brilliant  and  imposing. 


(200) 


AMERICA'S  FIRST  HORSELESS  CARRIAGE 


291 


The  Story  in  a  Sausage* 

Away  back  in  the  dark  ages,  even  before  the  Christian  era,  a  Chinese  husband- 
man, so  we  are  told,  made  a  wonderful  discovery — that  pork  was  good  to  eat.  No  one 
had  ever  considered  the  possibility  of  eating  pork,  for  in  those  days  pigs  were  pets, 
and  just  as  every  family  today  has  its  dog  " Rover,"  so  then,  every  family  had  its 
pig  "Scraps." 

One  day  the  house  of  Char-Lee  was  burned  to  the  ground.  The  cause  of  the  fire 
is  unknown.  Char-Lee  was  filled  with  remorse  and,  as  he  walked  about  among  the 
ruins  of  his  home,  he  felt  that  the  gods  of  Good  Luck  had  indeed  turned  their  backs 
on  him.  As  he  was  thus  bewailing  his  misfortunes,  he  stumbled  over  a  charred 
timber  and  fell  flat  on  the  ground.  In  lifting  himself  to  his  feet,  he  burned  the 
fingers  of  his  right  hand,  and,  as  does  a  child,  he  immediately  proceeded  to  suck  those 
fingers. 

Imagine  his  amazement  to  find  clinging  to  his  fingers  a  substance  most  luscious 
to  the  taste,  and  most  gratifying  to  the  palate!  He  looked  to  see  what  it  could  be, 
and — behold,  he  saw  that  it  was  the  remains  of  "  Scraps,"  who  had  been  lost  in  the 
burning  house  and  roasted  as  perhaps  never  has  a  pig  been  roasted  since. 

Eager  to  further  enjoy  this  new  delicacy,  Char-Lee  proceeded  to  feast  himself, 
and  it  was  then  he  found  that  pork  not  only  pleases  and  gratifies — but  satisfies. 
Desiring  to  share  his  new  delights  with  his  friends  and  neighbors,  he  called  them 
together  and  they  had  a  wonderful  feast.  From  that  day  to  this  we  have  eaten 
roasted  pork. 

It  was  many,  many  years  later  that  a  Roman  farmer,  living  on  a  beautiful  little 
farm  at  the  mouth  of  the  Tiber,  formed  the  habit  of  putting  fresk  pork  in  a  covered 
pan  and  burying  the  whole  deep  in  the  cool  sands  by  the  water's  edge.  But  one  day 
he  put  the  pan  too  near  the  edge  and  at  high  tide  the  salt  water  from  the  ocean  came 
up,  filled  the  pan,  and  so  smoothed  the  surface  of  the  sands  that  he  was  unable  to 
find  the  place  where  he  had  buried  the  container. 

After  several  fortnights  he  accidentally  found  his  meat  again.  He  examined 
it  carefully  and  was  surprised  to  find  that  it  had  seemingly  kept  in  perfect  condition, 
the  only  trouble  being  that  the  water  had  gotten  into  his  pan  and  his  meat  was  all  wet. 
So  he  carried  it  to  his  house,  and,  putting  a  long  skewer  through  the  piece,  he  hung 
it  high  above  the  fire  in  his  open  hearth,  to  dry  it  off  before  he  should  wish  to  roast  it. 

Later  in  the  day  he  set  out  with  two  companions  for  a  two-days'  hunting  expedi- 
tion in  the  woods.  As  the  party  returned,  laden  with  the  spoils  of  the  hunt,  his  cook 
was  preparing  a  meal  for  them.  As  he  walked  into  the  house,  he  thought  of  his  piece 
of  pork.  You  can  readily  imagine  his  astonishment  when  he  found  that  the  smoke 
from  the  smouldering  embers,  while  he  was  away,  had  turned  the  meat  a  deep  cherry 
hue,  and  that  the  fire,  built  up  to  prepare  the  home-coming  feast,  had  broiled  the 
piece  to  a  nicety.  It  savored  of  an  aroma  so  rare  that  it  was  given  preference  over 
even  the  choice  pheasants  which  had  been  prepared. 

This  was  the  first  time  a  cured  and  smoked  piece  of  pork  had  ever  been  eaten, 
but  could  you  have  seen  how  delighted  these  men  were  with  the  result  of  this  acci- 
dental preparation,  you  would  have  known  from  their  enthusiasm  that  cured,  smoked 
pork  would  one  day  have  a  very  great  popularity. 

Later,  a  .farmer  and  his  family  decided  that  they  would  like  to  eat  meat  even 
during  the  summer  months  when  the  activity  of  haying  season  made  it  impossible  to 
prepare  it  in  the  usual  way,  and  so,  in  March,  or  during  some  other  convenient  cool 

*  Courtesy  of  George  A.  Honnel  &  Co. 

(292) 


THE  STORY  IN  A  SAUSAGE 


293 


period,  he  would  kill  the  pig  which  had  been  fattening  all  winter,  and  dissect  the 
carcass  into  hams,  shoulders,  bacon  sides  and  mess  pork. 

These  parts  were  cured  by  different  methods;  one  very  popular  way  was  to  put 
the  hams  and  shoulders  on  about  an  inch  of  salt  in  the  bottom  of  a  barrel,  keeping 
these  parts  around  the  edge  so  as  to  leave  room  for  the  mess  pork  and  bacon  sides  in 
the  center.  Each  part  would  be  carefully  rubbed  with  salt  before  it  was  packed  away, 
and  slits  were  cut  from  the  surface  of  the  hams  to  the  bone,  so  that  one  might  force 
salt  in  them,  thus  keeping  the  meat  from  turning  sour.  The  top  of  the  meat  was 
sprinkled  with  sugar  and  saltpetre.  A  small  barrel  head  was  laid  on  the  top  of  the 


CHESTER  WHITE  Sows* 
Lard  Type  Hogs 

meat  and  a  heavy  stone  placed  on  the  head  so  as  to  hold  the  meat  firmly  in  place. 
At  the  end  of  a  week  just  enough  water  was  added  to  cover  the  barrel  head. 

Another  way  was  to  make  a  very  strong  salt  brine.  To  this  brine  would  be 
added  a  little  sugar  and  saltpetre,  and,  after  packing  the  meat  the  same  as  in  the 
other  case,  enough  of  this  brine  would  be  added  to  entirely  cover  the  meat.  By  not 
letting  the  brine  get  old,  or  by  keeping  plenty  of  salt  on  it,  the  meat  could  be  kept 
in  this  way  for  several  months,  but  would  be  available  for  use  at  any  time. 

Hams  and  shoulders  were  always  smoked  at  the  end  of  about  two  months.  When 
getting  ready  to  smoke  some  pieces,  the  farmer  would  first  soak  them  twenty-four 
hours  in  clear,  cold  water.  By  tying  a  string  through  the  shank  of  a  ham  and  running 
this  string  up  through  a  hole  in  the  bottom  of  an  inverted  barrel,  he  could  secure  it 
by  tying  to  a  small  stick  on  the  outside  of  the  hole.  Under  the  barrel  he  would  build 
a  small  fire,  sometimes  of  corncobs,  sometimes  of  hardwood  and  sawdust.  It  was 
the  task  of  the  small  boy  of  the  family  to  start  this  fire  in  the  morning  and  maintain 

*  Courtesy  of  The  Field,  New  York  City. 


294 


THE  STORY  IN  A  SAUSAGE 


I 


I 
I 


THE  STORY   IN  A  SAUSAGE 295 

it  all  day,  the  idea  being  to  keep  a  fire  which  was  not  too  hot  but  which  would  give 
off  plenty  of  smoke. 

At  the  end  of  three  days  the  meat  was  considered  thoroughly  smoked,  although 
some  men  liked  it  smoked  much  longer.  After  it  had  cooled  off  from  the  smoking  it 
was  hung  in  a  cool,  dry  place  or  packed  in  a  barrel  of  oats,  so  as  to  keep  it  from  getting 
a  damp  mold  and  spoiling. 

When  a  farmer  had  killed  a  hog,  he  would  render  out  certain  of  the  fats  in  an 
iron  caldron.  He  would  take  certain  parts  of  the  meat  and  make  his  home-made 
sausages,  but  further  than  that,  by-products  were  practically  unknown. 

The  foregoing  might  be  considered  a  short  synopsis  of  the  pork-packing  industry 
up  to  the  point  which  we  will  call  the  Modern  Era. 

This  period  had  a  small  start  back  in  the  early  days  when  a  small  dealer  would 
kill  a  few  hogs,  sell  the  sausage  and  lard  and  cure  and  smoke  the  parts,  carrying  them 
as  far  into  the  summer  months  as  he  could,  selling  them  out  to  his  trade.  Various 
methods  were  resorted  to  in  order  to  keep  mold  and  insects  from  spoiling  the  pro- 
duct. Perhaps  the  most  generally  used  of  these  methods  was  to  sew  the  piece  of  meat 
in  a  canvas  sack  and  paint  it  with  barytes.  This  gave  them  an  airtight  container  for 
the  meat  and  enabled  them  to  keep  smoked  meats  all  during  the  summer  months. 

The  advent  of  refrigeration,  however,  really  marked  the  beginning  of  the  modern 
packing  era.  When  men  learned  the  control  of  temperature  it  became  possible  for 
slaughter  houses  to  assume  such  proportions  as  to  warrant  scientific  research  for  the 
best  possible  methods  of  carrying  on  the  business. 

The  story  of  the  development  of  these  methods  would  be  almost  endless,  but  a 
trip  through  an  up-to-date  packing  plant  of  the  present  day  will  show  what  time  has 
brought  about. 

As  the  hogs  come  in  from  the  farmers  and  shippers  they  are  received  by  the 
live  stock  department,  where  they  are  carefully  sorted  and  graded,  and  then  run 
into  holding  pens,  to  carry  over  until  they  shall  be  driven  to  slaughter.  These  pens 
must  hold  thousands  of  hogs,  for  although  the  stock  is  held  two  or  three  days  at  the 
most  before  it  is  slaughtered,  we  must  remember  that  the  more  important  of  the 
packing  houses  kill  thousands  of  hogs  each  day,  so  these  pens  must  be  more  or  less 
gigantic  affairs.  The  more  modern  of  them  are  constructed  of  concrete  and  brick, 
and  are  a  picture  of  cleanliness  and  sanitation.  They  are  well  protected  by  sub- 
stantially built  roofs  and  side  walls  so  that  the  animals  are  not  exposed  to  the 
weather  at  any  time  of  the  year. 

Veterinarians  in  the  employ  of  the  government  examine  all  the  hogs  that  come 
into  these  pens,  and  any  that  seem  to  be  at  all  sickly,  or  for  any  reason  unfit  for  food, 
are  held  out. 

On  the  killing  floor  a  small  army  of  men  is  engaged  in  the  business  of  cleaning 
and  dressing  the  carcass  of  the  hog.  Each  man  has  his  particular  part  of  the  work 
to  do,  and  to  this  end  the  hogs  are  conveyed  around  the  room  past  the  various  work- 
men by  means  of  an  endless  chain  and  trolley,  so  that  each  butcher's  work  is  put  right 
before  him  and  he  does  not  have  to  make  any  unnecessary  moves.  The  whole 
department  works  like  one  vast  machine,  and  each  man  is  a  very  definite  and  nec- 
essary cog  in  the  whole  scheme  of  procedure. 

Perhaps  the  most  wonderful  thing  about  this  department  is  the  perfection  that 
they  are  able  to  reach  in  cleaning  the  carcasses.  The  hogs  are  first  run  through  a 
great  machine  which  takes  all  but  a  few  stray  hairs  from  them.  This  machine  con- 
tains a  number  of  rotating  beaters  and  high-pressure  streams  of  water. 

As  soon  as  they  come  out  of  the  machine,  the  men  on  the  rail  finish  the  job  of 
cleaning  the  carcass  and  each  animal  is  then  run  through  a  high-pressure  washing 
machine  so  that  it  is  absolutely  clean  before  a  single  incision  is  made  in  it. 

The  workmen  all  stand  on  high  benches,  up  from  the  floor,  and  under  the  hogs 


296 


THE  STORY  IN  A  SAUSAGE 


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THE  STORY  IN  A  SAUSAGE 


297 


THE  HALF-WAY  HOUSE 

Cattle  from  the  Western  plains  gathered  in  the  Union  Stockyards  awaiting 
slaughter  and  subsequent  shipment.     The  great  Union  Stockyards  in  Chicago  are 
the  largest  live-stock  market  in  the  world.     Beef  is  slaughtered  and  cleansed  very 
much  in  the  same  manner  as  the  pork  described  in  "The  Story  in  a  Sausage," 

Copyright  by  Underwood  &  Underwood  ~N.  Y. 


298 THE  STORY  IN  A  SAUSAGE 

we  find  troughs  to  keep  any  scraps  from  getting  under  the  workmen's  feet.  The 
floors  at  all  times  are  kept  as  clean  as  can  be,  and  the  meat  is  taken  away  quickly  so 
that  there  is  no  chance  of  contamination  of  the  finished  product  with  the  hogs  which 
are  just  coming  from  the  slaughter  house. 

Trained  men,  some  of  them  veterinarians,  in  the  employ  of  the  government,  make 
a  thorough  inspection  of  the  glands  and  other  organs  of  the  hog.  They  are  so  par- 
ticular that  even  bruises  must  be  trimmed  out  before  the  animals  are  allowed  to  pass 
and  go  on  with  the  bulk  which  are  fit  for  food.  It  is  surprising  to  learn  how  many 
carcasses,  or  parts,  are  condemned  because  of  one  thing  or  another,  for  the  least  sign 
of  sickness  or  unfitness  of  any  kind  calls  forth  a  government  "Condemned  Tag"  and 
holds  the  animal  out  to  one  side  to  be  used  for  fertilizer  or  some  other  inedible  purpose. 

Passing  through  the  hog  chill  rooms,  on  the  way  from  the  killing  floor,  one  is 
impressed  with  the  great  number  of  hogs  hanging  there  in  a  temperature  near  the 
freezing  point.  This  temperature  is  maintained  both  winter  and  summer,  so  that 
the  hogs  may  be  thoroughly  chilled  and  the  animal  heat  entirely  eliminated  as 
quickly  as  possible  after  the  killing,  so  that  there  will  be  no  chance  of  the  meat  souring 
or  any  unwholesome  condition  arising. 

After  about  forty-eight  hours  in  these  chill  rooms,  the  hogs  are  run  onto  the 
cutting  floor,  where  they  are  made  into  the  various  commercial  cuts  which  are  seen 
in  the  meat  markets  at  home.  They  start  out  with  the  whole  side  of  a  hog  and  work 
it  through,  until  they  have  what  the  packers  call  the  " Commercial  Cuts" — that  is 
to  say,  the  hams,  loins,  spare  ribs,  the  bacon  sides,  and  so  on. 

The  cutting  room  is  a  light,  airy  room  with  a  high  ceiling,  and  everything  in  it 
seems  a  perfect  example  of  cleanliness,  and  men  all  work  with  white  aprons,  jackets 
and  caps. 

The  next  stop  is  in  the  by-products  building.  As  the  writer  entered,  his  guide 
told  him  the  old  bromide  about  "  everything  about  a  packing  house  being  saved  except 
the  squeal,  and  even  that  having  been  known  to  appear  on  a  phonographic  record." 
He  thought  to  have  some  fun  by  asking  the  guide  about  the  smell,  but  the  laugh  was 
on  him,  for  the  guide  showed  him  how  the  air  containing  any  odor  was  simply  run 
through  a  condenser  into  a  great  volume  of  water,  which  absorbed  it.  The  gases 
which  had  made  the  odor  in  the  first  place  were  then  taken  out  in  the  form  of  solids, 
simply  by  evaporating  the  water  away.  The  big  evaporators  which  take  care  of  this 
work  are  extremely  interesting  pieces  of  machinery  to  see. 

There  is  a  surprisingly  large  amount  of  expensive  machinery  in  the  hair  plant. 
Hog  hair  would  probably  not  appeal  to  the  average  person  as  being  a  thing  of  par- 
ticular value,  but  it  is  processed  so  as  to  make  the  finished  product  worth  as  much 
as  the  meat  itself. 

Certain  parts  of  the  hog  carcasses  which  would  not  be  palatable  enough  to  go 
into  human  consumption  are  made  up  into  stock  foods.  These  are  sold  under  a 
guaranteed  analysis.  Highly-paid  chemists  are  busy  all  the  time  checking  up  the 
analysis  of  these  foods,  for  they  must  contain  certain  amounts  of  protein  and  crude 
fiber,  which  is  said  to  be  very  beneficial  to  stock  in  general. 

Another  department  manufactures  what  is  called  a  balanced  ration,  consisting 
of  a  certain  amount  of  grain  and  a  certain  amount  of  this  stock  food,  or  "  digester 
tankage,"  as  it  is  called.  This  balanced  ration  is  said  to  be  the  most  nutritious  food 
and  the  quickest  fattener  which  can  be  given  to  animals.  It  is  made  up  as  a  result  of 
protracted  experiments  and  much  scientific  research,  both  by  state  institutions  and 
by  private  individuals. 

There  is  always  a  certain  amount  of  grease  which  is  not  edible,  but  which  is 
suitable  for  soap  stocks,  and  the  tank  products  which  are  not  fit  for  food  are  made 
into  commercial  fertilizers,  which  are  gotten  up  under  chemical  formulas,  and  are 
made  up  part\cularlv  for  different  kinds  of  grains,  grasses,  flowers  and  the  like. 


THE  STORY  IN  A  SAUSAGE 


299 


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THE  STORY  IN  A  SAUSAGE 


THE  STORY  IN  A  SAUSAGE 301 

The  next  place  is  the  lard  department.  Here  great  closed  tanks  cook  the  fats, 
under  high  steam  pressure,  and  make  them  into  snow-white  lard.  There  are  great 
open  caldrons,  steam  jacketed,  where  an  even  and  uniform  temperature  is  maintained. 
Only  the  pure  leaf  lard,  which  is  supposed  to  be  the  choicest  fat  of  the  hog,  is  cooked 
in  these  kettles.  In  the  lard  packing  room  there  is  much  automatic  machinery,  with 
which  the  various  sized  packages  of  lard  are  weighed  out.  Machines  hermetically 
seal  the  tins,  and  men  pack  them  in  crates  and  carefully  weigh  them  over  two  scales. 

The  average  person  does  not  have  even  an  idea  of  what  the  modern  curing  cellar 
is  like.  The  brines  and  curing  mixtures  are  prepared  by  trained  men  who  do  no 
other  work  but  this.  Everything  goes  exactly  according  to  formula,  and  the  different 
ingredients  are  weighed  out  to  the  ounce.  The  guide  insisted  that  a  bare  ten  per 
cent  of  all  the  hams  or  bacon  sides  produced  in  the  plant  are  finally  allowed  to  bear 
the  company's  trade-mark.  The  men  who  finally  select  these  goods  are  the  oldest 
and  most  trusted  employees  of  the  firm.  They  weigh  out  a  certain  amount  of  this 
meat  for  each  tierce,  or  vat,  to  be  packed,  and  then  an  exact  number  of  gallons  of 
pickle  is  put  in  with  the  meat  so  that  each  pound  of  meat  will  have  just  a  certain 
amount  of  pickle  to  cure  it.  This  is  said  to  insure  a  uniform  product  so  that  one 
trade-marked  ham  is  exactly  like  another. 

Even  the  length  of  time  which  these  are  left  in  cure  must  not  vary  a  day.  In 
the  great  curing  room  thousands  of  vats  and  tierces  are  piled,  and  the  usual  tierces 
hold  about  three  hundred  pounds  of  meat,  while  the  vats  hold  nearly  fifteen  hundred 
pounds. 

In  the  dry-salt  curing  cellars  are  kept  enormous  stocks  of  the  cheaper  kinds  of 
meat.  These,  instead  of  being  cured  in  brine,  are  rubbed  in  salt  and  piled  away. 
These  piles  are  perhaps  three  or  four  feet  high,  and  are  so  neat  and  true  that  they 
appear  to  have  been  the  work  of  a  master  mason.  A  single  one  of  these  dry-salt  curing 
rooms  holds  over  three  million  pounds. 

Sliced  bacon,  fancy  sausage  and  other  specialties  are  usually  packed  in  a  separate 
room,  into  attractive  cartons  for  the  retail  trade. 

The  standard  of  cleanliness  in  the  sausage  kitchen  has  to  be  unusually  high. 
Wherever  white  tile  is  not  possible,  white  paint  is  used  in  profusion.  The  shining 
metal  tables  and  trucks,  on  which  the  product  is  handled,  give  a  new  confidence  in 
sausage.  The  girls  and  men  employed  all  wear  clean  white  aprons,  jackets  and  caps, 
and  no  effort  is  spared  in  keeping  everything  and  everybody  in  the  place  in  an  ideal 
condition. 

The  meat  is  run  through  enormous  automatic  grinders  and  choppers,  and  through 
mixers  that  approach  a  dairy  churn  in  size.  After  it  has  been  properly  mixed  and 
thoroughly  taken  care  of,  it  is  put  into  automatic  machinery,  run  by  air  pressure, 
which  stuffs  it  into  the  ham  sacks  and  casings,  in  which  we  see  the  sausage  in  the 
markets.  The  cooking  is  done  in  great  vats  and  in  enormous  electric  ovens. 

When  we  stop  to  think  of  the  proportion  of  our  food  which  is  a  packing-house 
product,  we  can  be  glad  indeed  that  conditions  such  as  those  described  above  are 
becoming  available  more  and  more  every  day. 


Why  do  We  Call  them  "  Dog-Days  "? 

When  we  talk  about  " dog-days"  now,  we  mean  the  period  of  the  year  between 
July  3d  and  August  llth,  twenty  days  before  and  after  the  rising  of  the  "  dog-star." 

The  name  was  applied  by  the  ancients  to  a  period  of  about  forty  days,  the  hottest 
season  of  the  year,  at  the  time  of  the  rising  of  Sirius,  the  dog-star. 

The  time  of  the  rising  is  now,  owing  to  the  precession  of  the  equinoxes,  different 
from  what  it  was  then  (July  1st).  It  is  now  about  July  23d. 


302         HOW  IS  A  FIVE  DOLLAR  GOLD  PIECE  MADE 


ELECTRIC  COINING  PRESS,  U.  S.  MINT,  PHILADELPHIA 

Woman  feeding  planchets  to  brass  tubes,  from  the  bottom  of  which  they  are  carried  to 
the  steel  dies  which  form  the  coins. 


HOW  IS  A  FIVE  DOLLAR  GOLD  PIECE  MADE        303 

How  is  a  Five  Dollar  Gold  Piece  Made? 

The  process  of  converting  the  precious  metals  into  coins  is  an  interesting  one. 

The  rolling  machines  through  which  the  ingots  are  passed  are  adjustable,  the 
space  between  the  rollers  being  governed  by  the  operator.  About  two  hundred  ingots 
are  run  through  per  hour  on  each  pair  of  rollers. 

When  the  rolling  is  completed  the  strip  of  metal  is  about  six  feet  long.  As  it  is 
impossible  to  roll  perfectly  true,  it  is  necessary  to  "draw"  these  strips,  after  being 
softened  by  annealing.  The  drawing  benches  resemble  long  tables,  with  a  bench  on 
either  side,  at  one  end  of  which  is  an  iron  box  secured  to  the  table.  In  this  are  fast- 
ened two  perpendicular  steel  cylinders.  These  are  at  the  same  distance  apart  that 
the  thickness  of  the  strip  is  required  to  be.  It  is  drawn  between  the  cylinders,  which 
reduces  the  whole  to  an  equal  thickness. 

These  strips  are  now  taken  to  the  cutting  machines,  each  of  which  will  cut  225 
planchets  per  minute.  The  press  used  consists  of  a  vertical  steel  punch.  From  a 
strip  worth  $1,100  about  $800  of  planchets  will  be  cut.  These  are  then  removed  to 
the  adjusting  room,  where  they  are  adjusted.  After  inspection  they  are  weighed  on 
very  accurate  scales.  If  a  planchet  is  too  heavy,  but  near  the  weight,  it  is  filed  off  at 
the  edges;  if  too  heavy  for  filing,  it  is  thrown  aside  with  the  light  ones  to  be  remelted. 

The  planchets,  after  being  adjusted,  are  taken  to  the  coining  and  milling  rooms, 
and  are  passed  through  the  milling  machine.  They  are  fed  to  this  machine  through 
an  upright  tube,  and  as  they  descend  are  caught  upon  the  edge  of  a  revolving  wheel 
and  carried  about  a  quarter  of  a  revolution,  during  which  the  edge  is  compressed 
and  forced  up.  By  this  apparatus  560  nickels  can  be  milled  in  a  minute;  for  large 
pieces  the  average  is  120. 

The  massive  but  delicate  coining  presses  coin  from  80  to  100  pieces  a  minute. 
These  presses  dp  their  work  in  a  perfect  manner.  After  being  stamped  the  coins  are 
taken  to  the  coiner's  room.  The  light  and  heavy  corns  are  kept  separate  in  coining, 
and  when  delivered  to  the  treasurer  they  are  mixed  in  such  proportions  as  to  give 
him  full  weight  in  every  delivery.  By  law,  the  deviation  from  the  standard  weight, 
in  delivering  to  him,  must  not  exceed  three  pennyweights  in  one  thousand  double 
eagles. 

The  coinage  of  the  United  States  mints  since  the  organization  of  the  government 
has  amounted  to  nearly  6,000,000,000  pieces,  valued  at  over  $4,000,000,000. 

How  does  a  Bird  Fly? 

The  wing  of  a  bird  is  an  elastic,  flexible  organ,  with  a  thick  anterior  and  a  thin 
posterior  margin;  hence  the  wing  does  not  act  like  a  solid  board,  but  is  thrown  into 
a  succession  of  curves.  When  a  ^M  rises  from  the  ground  it  leaps  up  with  head 
stuck  out  and  expanded  tail,  so  that  the  body  is  in  the  position  of  a  boy's  kite  when 
thrown  up.  The  wings  are  strongly  flapped,  striking  forward  and  downward,  and  the 
bird  quickly  ascends.  It  has  been  shown  that  the  wing  describes  a  figure  8  in  its 
action,  the  margin  being  brought  down  so  that  the  tip  of  the  wing  gives  the  last  blow 
after  the  part  next  the  trunk  has  ceased  to  strike;  hence,  standing  in  front  of  a  bird, 
the  wing  would  be  divided  into  two,  the  upper  surface  of  one-half  and  the  lower 
surface  of  the  other  being  visible  at  the  same  time.  These  portions  are  reversed  when 
the  wing  is  drawn  back  and  towards  the  body,  before  beginning  another  stroke;  but 
it  will  be  observed  that  during  retraction  the  wing  is  still  sloped,  so  that  the  resem- 
blance to  a  kite  is  maintained.  There  are  many  varieties  of  flight  among  birds;  of 
these  the  most  remarkable  is  the  sailing  motion,  in  which  the  wings  are  but  slightly 
moved.  Probably  the  original  impetus  is  maintained  by  the  kite-like  slope  of  the 
wing,  and  advantage  may  be  taken  of  currents  by  a  rotation  of  the  wing  at  the 
shoulder,  a  movement  invisible  at  any  distance. 


The  Story  of  the  Big  Redwood  Trees* 

The  "Big  Trees"  of  California  are  the  most  magnificent  specimens  of  tree  growth 
that  have  ever  been  found.  In  addition,  they  are  the  oldest  known  living  things; 
they  connect  the  present  with  the  past  in  a  chain  of  living  rings  in  the  tree  that 
betray  their  great  age  to  the  modern  scientist.  Estimates  of  the  age  of  the  "Big 
Trees"  vary  from  the  Christian  Era  through  a  period  dating  back  beyond  the  coming 
of  the  Christian  Saviour  about  4,000  years. 

The  "Big  Trees"  of  Calif orriia  are  known  as  the  "Sequoias,"  and  they  are 
divided  into  two  different  although  closely  related  species.  The  few  enormous  trees 
of  great  age  which  are  now  preserved  in  groves  are  known  as  the  Sequoia  Gigantia. 
These  big  trees  grow  at  an  altitude  between  4,000  and  7,000  feet,  and,  whether 
individual  or  in  groves,  they  are  found  in  protected  valleys,  canyons,  etc. 

What  is  known  as  the  Redwoods,  or  scientifically  listed  as  Sequoia  Sempervirens, 
grow  in  heavy  stands  and  really  are  a  younger  growth  of  the  "Big  Trees."  The 
redwoods  grow  in  the  fog  belt  in  the  counties  bordering  the  coast  from  Monterey  Bay 
north  to  the  Oregon  line.  These  trees  range  in  age  from  500  to  2,000  years,  and  are 
generally  supposed  by  the  scientists  to  be  a  reproduction  growth  that  began  their 
earthly  existence  shortly  after  the  glacial  period.  The  Sequoia  Gigantia  reproduce 
from  cones,  while  the  redwoods  reproduce  from  suckers  that  grow  from  the  stump. 
The  redwoods  bear  non-fertile  cones.  Both  species  of  the  sequoias  are  evergreen. 

These  trees,  including  both  species,  range  in  height  from  100  to  400  feet  and  in 
circumference  from  15  to  90  feet.  When  full  grown  the  "Big  Trees"  are  propor- 
tionate and  symmetrical  in  girth  and  height  and  the  beauty  of  the  tree  is  enhanced 
by  flutings  that  traverse  the  bark  from  the  base  to  the  apex.  The  root  system  is  a 
remarkable  feature  of  the  "Big  Trees,"  for  they  have  a  very  poor  footing  for  trees 
of  their  great  size  and  weight.  The  roots  radiate  a  short  distance  below  the  surface 
of  the  ground  and  there  is  no  stabilizer  in  the  shape  of  a  tap  root  such  as  in  other 
woods.  The  bark  ranges  in  thickness  from  four  to  thirty  inches,  although  in  rare 
instances  it  has  been  found  fifty  inches  thick.  The  bark  is  light,  soft  and  of  a  bright 
Cinnamon  color.  The  lumber  from  the  redwood  tree  is  light,  and  ranges  in  color  from 
medium  to  light  cherry,  while  the  lumber  from  the  "Big  Trees,"  or  Sequoia  Gigantia, 
has  a  decided  pink  cast. 

John  Muir,  the  eminent  California  naturalist,  evolved  the  theory  from  the 
topographical  position  of  the  enormously  big  trees,  which  grow  only  in  the  vicinity 
of  Yosemite  Park,  that  they  escaped  the  glacial  action  because  they  were  located 
in  protected  places  in  the  mountains. 

Commercial  redwood — and  there  are  twenty-one  mills  cutting  redwood — is 
one  of  the  most  valuable  woods  on  the  Pacific  coast.  It  carries  with  it  into  lumber 
two  traits  of  the  tree  itself — fire  retardance  and  rot  resistance.  These  two  qualities 
are  the  real  secrets  of  the  "Big  Trees."  There  is  no  fungus  growth  on  the  redwoods 
neither  are  the  redwoods  attacked  by  boring  worms  or  other  insects  so  common  to 
other  species  of  wood. 

Some  of  the  giant  redwood  logs  must  be  split  in  the  woods  with  powder  before 
they  can  be  handled  on  the  saw  carriage,  and  the  average  yield  per  acre  is  in  the 
neighborhood  of  150,000  feet.  At  the  present  rate  of  cutting,  about  400,000,000 
feet  a  year,  there  is  more  than  one  hundred  years'  supply  of  redwood  still  standing. 

The  redwoods  thrive  in  moisture — it  is  taken  into  the  roots,  the  foliage  and  the 
bark.  This  accounts  for  the  remarkable  rot-resisting  quality.  The  railroads  prefer 

*  Courtesy  of  the  California  Redwood  Association. 

(3<H) 


THE  STORY  OF  THE  BIG  REDWOOD  TREES 


A  LORDLY  PILLAR  IN  ONE  OF  "Goo's  FIRST  TEMPLES" 

"Grizzly  Giant,"  a  redwood  in  Mariposa  Grove,  California,  one  of  the  most  won- 
derf ul  of  all  wonderful  sights  in  the  West 

Copyright  by  Underwood  &  Underwood,  N.  Y. 


306        THE  STORY  OF  THE  BIG  REDWOOD  TREES 

redwood  for  ties  because  of  its  resistance  to  decay  in  contact  with  moist  soil.  The 
Southern  Pacific  Company  today  has  in  service  in  some  of  its  sidings  redwood  ties 
that  were  put  down  under  its  rails  fifty-five  years  ago. 

Fire  retardance  is  a  remarkable  feature  of  redwood.  In  the  early  days  of  logging, 
when  modern  machinery  was  not  available,  the  woodsmen  were  confronted  with  the 
problem  of  moving  tremendously  heavy  trees.  About  sixty  per  cent  of  redwood  is 
moisture,  and  what  is  known  as  the  "butt  cut"  logs — the  first  cut  above  the  ground, 
which  is  usually  sixteen  feet  in  length,  will  weigh  from  thirty  to  fifty  tons.  In  order 
to  move  these  heavy  logs,  therefore,  it  was  necessary  for  the  woodsmen  to  get  rid 
of  the  bark,  the  undergrowth  and  the  branches,  which,  in  logging  parlance,  is  known 
as  "slash."  He  soon  learned  that  redwood  so  strongly  resists  fire  that  it  was  entirely 
safe  to  set  fire  to  the  logged-over  field,  burning  out  this  slash  without  any  damage 
whatever  to  the  logs,  although  they  were  exposed  to  a  fierce  fire  for  a  period  of  eight 
to  twelve  hours.  Redwood  does  burn,  but  very  slowly,  and  those  who  are  familiar 
with  California  redwood  know  that  it  is  the  despair  of  the  camper  to  endeavor  to 
build  a  fire  with  it.  Redwood  does  not  contain  pitch,  the  inflammable  element  in 
wood,  and,  in  addition,  it  is  extremely  porous,  quickly  absorbing  water.  These  two 
traits,  in  addition  to  the  chemical  composition  of  the  wood  itself,  give  it  the  fire 
retardance  quality. 

Redwood  lumber,  being  light  in  weight  and  singularly  free  from  many  of  the 
defects  so  prevalent  in  other  wood,  is  extremely  easy  to  work.  When  properly  dried 
it  does  not  shrink,  warp  or  swell.  It  is  capable  of  producing  magnificent  tones  for 
interior  finish,  and  some  of  the  most  charming  homes  on  the  Pacific  coast  have  been 
made  so  by  reason  of  the  wonderful  possibilities  of  redwood  in  this  respect.  Remark- 
able color-tone  finishes  are  done  by  acid  stains.  Redwood  is  also  a  specialty  wood. 
It  has  been  used  for  years  by  the  organ  manufacturers  in  the  West  for  organ  pipes, 
giving  eminent  satisfaction.  For  incubators  it  is  particularly  desirable,  while  for 
concrete  form  lumber,  and  particularly  in  hot  sections  where  the  fierce  heat  of  the 
sun  is  liable  to  warp  other  woods,  it  gives  wonderful  service  by  "staying  put."  Red- 
wood is  one  of  the  few  woods  that  can  be  used  over  again  for  concrete  work.  For 
siding,  sheathing,  sub-flooring,  shingles,  window  casings  and  frames,  redwood  is 
much  used,  because  of  its  resistance  to  decay,  both  from  contact  with  moisture  or 
dry  rot. 

Redwood's  hardihood,  due  to  the  natural  acids  in  the  wood,  make  it  so  weather- 
resisting  that  it  will  last  just  as  long  unpainted  as  it  does  painted.  However,  there 
is  no  wood  that  takes  and  holds  paint  better.  This  is  due  to  the  absence  of  pitch 
and  the  porosity  of  the  wood.  It  also  possesses  a  remarkable  resistance  to  corrosive 
acids  and  for  this  reason  is  the  preferred  material  for  tanks  and  vats  in  wineries, 
breweries,  chemical  works,  mines,  tanneries,  etc. 

The  great  bulk  of  redwood  lumber  has  for  years  been  consumed  in  the  State  of 
California,  with  about  50,000,000  feet  annually  going  to  Australia  and  the  Orient 
and  about  50,000,000  feet  shipped  by  rail  to  the  Middle  West  and  East,  the  eastern 
shipments  consisting  practically  of  house  materials  and  finishing  stock. 


How  did  the  Expression  "  Forlorn  Hope  "  Originate? 

In  the  expression  "forlorn  hope"  we  have  made  the  Dutch  word  "hoop" 
meaning  a  "company"  into  hope. 

The  "forlorn  hoop"  was  a  body  of  men,  usually  volunteers,  selected  from 
different  regiments,  to  lead  an  assault,  enter  a  breach  or  perform  some  other  service 
attended  with  uncommon  peril. 


"WALL  STREET"  KNOWN  AROUND  THE  WORLD    807 


Photo  by  Brown  Bros. 


.WALL  STREET,  KNOWN  ABOUND  THE  WORLD 


308     "WALL  STREET ?>  KNOWN  AROUND  THE  WORLD 

Why  is  "  Wall  Street "  Known  Around  the  World? 

This  narrow  canyon  street  in  the  lower  part  of  the  Borough  of  Manhattan  is 
the  financial  center  of  New  York  City.  The  various  exchanges  and  the  largest 
banking  institutions  are  situated  here,  and  stocks  and  bonds  are  dealt  in  to  a  vast 
extent.  Its  control  over  finance  has  spread  until  now  it  affects  the  whole  country 
and  is  a  rival  of  the  great  financial  centers  of  Europe. 

In  the  picture,  Trinity  Church  is  shown,  lying  at  the  head  of  Wall  Street,  on 
Broadway,  with  its  quaint  old  churchyard  and  its  spire  insignificant  amid  the  giant 
skyscrapers  that  surround  it.  Trinity  Church  was  founded  in  1696  and  rebuilt  in  1839. 
It  is  probably  the  wealthiest  and  most  influential  of  the  churches  in  the  United 
States,  controlling  many  valuable  real  estate  properties  in  New  York  City,  and  having 
some  of  the  richest  and  most  prominent  people  in  the  country  among  its  members. 

Starting  approximately  a  quarter  of  a  mile  south  of  Wall  Street,  Broadway, 
New  York  City's  main  business  thoroughfare,  extends  for  fifteen  miles  to  the  northern 
end  of  Manhattan  Island.  The  activity  and  variety  of  its  traffic,  the  elegance  of  its 
shops,  and  the  massiveness  and  grandeur  of  many  of  its  public  and  private  buildings, 
makes  it  one  of  the  most  interesting  streets  in  the  world. 

What  Makes  a  Stick  Seem  to  Bend  in  Water? 

When  we  hold  a  stick  partly  in  the  water,  it  looks  as  though  the  stick  bends 
just  where  it  enters  the  water.  That  is  due  to  the  change  of  the  direction  of  the  light 
after  it  enters  the  water.  This  change  in  the  direction  of  the  light  rays  is  called 
refraction.  Glass,  water  and  other  solids  and  fluids  each  have  different  powers  of 
refraction. 

The  law  of  refraction  comes  into  operation  when  a  ray  of  light  passes  through  a 
smooth  surface  bounding  two  media  not  homogeneous,  such  as  air  and  water,  or 
when  rays  traverse  a  medium  the  density  of  which  is  not  uniform,  such  as  the 
atmosphere. 

What  Causes  a  Lump  in  a  Person's  Throat? 

When  we  eat  anything,  it  passes  into  the  throat  after  we  have  chewed  it,  and 
instead  of  just  dropping  down  into  our  stomachs,  there  is  a  nine  or  ten  inch  series  of 
rings  in  our  throats,  that  takes  the  food,  passing  or  squeezing  it  from  one  set  of  muscle 
rings  to  the  other.  These  muscle  rings  are  capable  of  working  both  up  and  down. 
If  something  is  eaten  which  causes  vomiting,  the  muscles  work  the  other  way  and 
force  the  matter  from  the  stomach. 

When  one  is  frightened  a  sort  of  a  hollow  feeling  comes  into  the  stomach  and  the 
muscles  of  the  throat  work  upward,  pressing  against  the  windpipe  and  causing  one  to 
feel  as  if  there  was  a  lump  there. 

How  are  We  Able  to  Hear  Through  Speaking-Tubes? 

We  know  that  when  we  speak,  the  sound  waves  that  we  set  in  motion  are  carried 
in  every  direction.  Now  when  we  speak  into  a  tube,  the  sound  waves  cannot  travel 
in  all  directions,  but  must  follow  the  tube,  and  so  we  can  hear  through  a  tube  at  a 
greater  distance  than  we  can  when  speaking  in  the  usual  way. 

The  use  of  a  megaphone  or  speaking  trumpet  for  conveying  the  sound  of  the 
voice  to  a  distance  is  based  on  the  same  principle. 

Why  do  We  Always  Shake  Hands  with  Our  Right  Hand? 

The  custom  of  shaking  hands  with  the  right  hand  has  come  down  to  us  from 
the  time  when  everyone  carried  a  sword  or  knife.  In  those  days  when  one  met  a 
stranger  it  was  customary,  as  an  indication  of  friendly  intention,  to  hold  out  the  right 
hand  to  show  that  it  did  not  hold  a  sword  or  knife  ready  for  attack. 


The  Story  in  a  Billiard  Table* 

The  origin  of  billiards  is  lost  in  antiquity.  Who  invented  the  game  and  the 
early  processes  of  its  evolution  remain  mysteries. 

The  first  known  reference  to  the  game  with  any  traditional  or  historical  accuracy 
occurs  in  Abbe  McGeoghegan's  "  History  of  Ireland."  Cathire  More,  a  sub-king  who 
ruled  over  Leinster,  died  A.  D.  148.  The  Abbe,  quoting  from  King  Cathire's  will, 
says,  "To  Drimoth  I  bequeath  fifty  billiard  balls  of  brass  with  the  cues  of  the  same 
material." 

As  early  as  the  fifteenth  century  we  have  much  evidence  of  the  universality  of 
the  game  all  over  southern  Europe.  It  was  certainly  known  in  France  in  the  time  of 
Louis  IX,  who  died  nine  years  before  Columbus  discovered  America. 

Shakespeare,  in  Anthony  and  Cleopatra  (Act  II,  Scene  5),  makes  the  latter  say, 
"Let  us  to  billiards." 

Cotton's  "Compleat  Gamster"  published  in  1674,  refers  to  billiards  as  "This 
most  gentle,  cleanly  and  ingenious  game."  He  states  that  it  was  first  played  in 
France,  but  later  gives  Spain  as  its  birthplace. 

That  the  game  was  well  known  in  England,  and  in  fact  in  all  Europe,  is  revealed 
when  Cotton  says,  "For  the  excellency  of  the  recreation,  it  is  much  approved  of  and 
played  by  most  nations  of  Europe,  especially  England,  there  being  few  towns  of  note 
therein  which  hath  not  a  public  billiard  table;  neither  are  they  wanting  in  many 
noble  and  private  families  in  the  country." 

Billiards  was  brought  to  America  by  the  Spaniards  who  settled  St.  Augustine, 
Florida,  in  1565.  While  we  have  no  direct  evidence,  it  is  very  safe  to  assume  that 
the  English  gentlemen,  so  familiar  with  the  game  in  the  home  land,  who  colonized 
Virginia  in  1609,  were  not  long  in  introducing  it  in  Jamestown. 

There  is  also  every  reason  to  believe  that  the  French  colonists  in  Maryland  and 
Canada  let  no  great  time  elapse  before  importing  tables  and  equipment  into  those 
colonies. 

In  the  days  of  Cromwell,  billiards  had  been  tabooed  by  the  Puritan,  not  on 
moral  grounds,  but  rather  political.  Billiards  was  the  game  of  the  aristocracy  and 
the  Puritan  hated  not  only  the  aristocrat,  but  the  style  and  color  of  his  clothes,  the 
cut  of  his  hair,  as  well  as  the  games  he  played. 

Doubtless  this  attitude  was  carried  to  America  by  the  New  England  colonists, 
and  only  when  those  colonies  had  been  diluted  by  the  injection  of  other  social  groups 
did  Puritan  prejudice  die  and  billiards  enter  into  their  recreational  life. 

However,  there  is  no  doubt  that  by  the  latter  part  of  the  seventeenth  century 
the  game  was  universally  played  in  the  United  States. 

From  that  time  to  the  present  the  tide  of  popularity  for  billiards  as  the  premier 
indoor  game  has  been  steadily  rising. 

Unlike  most  things  in  the  affairs  of  men,  billiards  has  not  developed  at  either 
end  of  society,  thus  working  toward  the  opposite  extreme;  but  it  began  at  both  ends 
and  worked  towards  the  middle. 

In  the  early  days  we  witness  the  strange  spectacle  of  the  game  being  indulged  in 
by  the  wealthy  and  leisurely  class  on  the  one  hand,  and  the  idle  and  vicious  on  the 
other.  It  is  easy  to  understand  why.  The  first  group  was  the  logical  extension  of 
the  old-world  aristocracy.  The  second  group  lived  in  an  age  when  the  great  middle 
class  was  struggling  for  a  foothold  in  a  new  country.  Men  had  very  little  time  and 

*  Illustrations  by  courtesy  of  The  Brunswick-Balke-Collender  Co, 

(309) 


310 THE  STORY  IN  A  BILLIARD  TABLE 

disposition  for  play,  and  this,  coupled  with  the  remnants  of  Puritanic  influence,  left 
the  game  in  the  hands  of  those  who  lived  by  their  wits  rather  than  work. 

From  these  two  extremes,  therefore,  the  game  began  to  work  toward  the  great 
middle  classes.  In  process  of  time  recreation  became  a  necessity,  until  today  it  is 
considered  a  duty.  Men  learned  to  play  and,  casting  about  for  a  game  worthy  of 
them,  naturally  laid  hold  of  billiards. 

Toward  this  desired  result  the  Y.  M.  C.  A.  and  church  clubs  have  contributed 
greatly.  They  have  broken  down  much  of  the  illogical  prejudice  against  the  games, 
and  have  shown  the  public-room  keepers  that  billiards  can  flourish  under  good  and 
healthful  conditions. 

As  the  game  became  more  universally  played,  a  better  class  of  billiard-room 
keepers  entered  the  commercial  field,  thus  helping  to  eliminate  the  incompetent  and 
vicious. 

Today  the  game  has  practically  thrown  off  the  last  vestige  of  disrepute.  In  those 
sporaclic  instances  where  such  is  not  the  case,  it  is  due  to  two  causes.  First,  the 
majority  of  people  in  the  community  have  low  ideals.  Second,  excessive  license 
taxes  forces  certain  room  keepers  to  resort  to  disreputable  means  for  keeping  alive 
their  business. 

Nevertheless,  billiards  today  throughout  the  land  is  ranked  among  the  highest 
and  cleanest  forms  of  recreation.  The  exceptions  mentioned  prove  the  rule. 

Through  a  long,  hard,  vigorous  opposition  the  virtues  of  billiards  have  asserted 
themselves.  Today  the  game  stands  vindicated  and  triumphant.  It  is  entering 
thousands  of  homes,  church  clubs,  industrial  welfare,  charitable,  educational  and  all 
other  institutions.  There  are  more  billiard  players  in  the  United  States  than  there 
are  baseball  players;  not  mere  spectators,  but  actual  players. 

One  large  company  alone  manufactures  500,000  cues  every  year,  and  we  must 
remember  that  a  billiard  cue,  unlike  a  baseball  bat,  can  be  repaired  and  lasts  for 
many  years.  This  fact  is  sufficient  to  convey  an  idea  of  the  vast  extent  to  which 
the  game  is  played 

In  the  early  part  of  the  nineteenth  century  there  were  no  manufacturers  of 
billiard  equipment  in  the  United  States. 

In  1840  J.  M.  Brunswick,  who  operated  a  small  furniture  repair  shop  in 
Cincinnati,  Ohio,  conceived  the  idea  of  making  a  pigeonhole  table.  Success  in  this 
line  led  him  to  experiment  in  the  manufacture  of  billiard  tables,  practically  all  of 
which  were  then  imported.  The  business  flourished.  At  first  only  the  6  x  12  English 
pocket  tables  were  made — later  the  small  French  carom  tables  were  built. 

The  two  main  objects  of  billiard  construction  are  to  create  an  accurate  medium 
for  play  and  then  to  keep  the  table  permanently  accurate  by  making  it  impervious  to 
atmospheric  or  climatic  conditions. 

To  accomplish  this  with  wood  has  taken  years  of  experience  and  experimentation. 

Accuracy  is  obtained  by  the  employment  of  specially-trained  and  long-experi- 
enced workmen.  One  large  company  now  has  hundreds  of  men  who  have  been  in  its 
employ  for  twenty  years  and  many  who  have  served  from  twenty-five  to  forty  years. 
These  men  know  their  business. 

Permanent  accuracy  is  obtained  by  close  adherence  to  two  principles.  First, 
to  give  weight  to  the  table.  One  model,  5  x  10  feet  in  size,  weighs  2,000  pounds. 
Second,  all  wood  parts  are  built  up  with  veneer  layers;  never  are  they  constructed  of 
solid  blocks  of  wood.  A  billiard  table  is  the  last  word  in  the  art  of  cabinet-making. 

There  are  six  principal  parts  to  all  tables. 

The  Legs. — Massive  as  these  are,  they  are  built  up,  not  turned  from  solid  blocks. 
In  all  legs  there  are  at  least  three  veneers,  two  on  the  outside  and  one  on  the  inside. 
On  the  highest-grade  tables  five  veneers  are  used.  Six  legs  are  placed  on  the  best 
and  larger  tables  and  four  on  the  smaller. 


THE  STORY  IN  A  BILLIARD  TABLE 311 

The  Frame. — Like  the  legs,  the  four  parts  of  the  frame,  which  in  every  case  is  a 
perfect  parallelogram,  are  built  up  and  veneered  on  both  sides.  When  the  frame 
has  been  bolted  to  the  legs,  stretchers  or  braces  are  placed  within.  Two  to  four, 
depending  on  the  size  of  the  table,  run  lengthwise  through  the  center,  and  two  or 
three  running  equidistant,  crosswise.  The  top  of  the  stretcher  is  flush  with  the  top 
of  the  frame,  making  a  perfect  level  upon  which  the  slate  bed  is  to  rest. 

The  Slate  Bed. — Only  the  highest-grade  Vermont  slate  is  used,  and  on  the  best 
tables  of  standard  size,  4x8  feet,  4^  x  9  feet,  and  5x10  feet,  the  slabs,  of  which 
there  are  three,  are  1%  inches  thick.  At  the  factory  the  slate  is  cut  to  size  and 
smoothed  top  and  bottom.  The  pocket  holes  are  next  sawed  out.  On  the  center 
slab  two  are  cut,  one  in  the  exact  middle  of  either  end.  On  the  two  end  slabs  they  are 
cut  on  the  two  outside  corners. 

The  slabs,  where  they  join,  are  then  bored  along  the  edges  and  brass  dowels  are 


SUPPLY  ROOM  AT  MUSKEGON 
The  many  triangles  will  convey  an  idea  of  the  vastness  of  the  billiard  industry. 

inserted  which  engage  sockets  set  in  the  opposite  slab.  This  keeps  all  slabs  level  with 
each  other.  All  around  the  outside  edge  they  are  bored  for  the  insertion  of  the  bolts 
to  fasten  the  cushion  rails  to  the  slate.  Screw  holes,  countersunk,  are  bored  from 
the  top  down  through  the  slabs,  around  the  outer  edges,  through  which  the  slate  is 
screwed  to  the  frame. 

When  the  slate  bed  is  laid,  the  slabs,  doweled  as  the  leaves  of  an  extension  dining 
table,  are  fitted  together  and  screwed  to  the  frame.  The  table  is  then  pushed  under 
a  huge  grinding  machine  and  the  slate  surface  is  made  plane,  as  nearly  perfect  as 
human  ingenuity  can  make  it. 

The  Bed  Cloth. — Only  the  finest  grade  of  imported  Belgium  broadcloth  is  used 
on  the  best  tables.  It  is  colored  green,  which  is  restful  for  the  eyes. 

The  bed  cloth  is  first  tacked  to  the  frame  beneath  the  slate  at  one  corner.  It  is 
then  stretched  to  its  utmost  to  the  opposite  diagonal  corner.  When  this  is  fastened 
the  cloth  is  tacked  around  the  remainder  of  the  bed;  being  stretched  as  tightly  as 
possible  in  every  direction. 

The  table  is  now  ready  for  the  rails  and  cushions.    Like  all  other  wood  parts,  the 


312 THE  STORY  IN  A  BILLIARD  TABLE 

rails  are  built  up  and  veneered,  rather  than  made  of  a  single  block  of  wood.  When 
the  rail  has  been  formed,  the  ivory  diamond-shaped  squares  and  name  plate  are 
countersunk  into  the  top.  The  squares  are  to  enable  the  player  to  properly  judge 
the  angles  of  play. 

The  cushions  are  fastened  to  the  inside  of  the  rail  by  means  of  a  specially 
prepared  glue. 

Only  the  best  grade  of  rubber  is  used  for  good  cushions.  The  rubber  is  molded 
in  long  strips  in  some  form  of  isosceles  triangle,  depending  on  the  style  of  the  game 
to  be  played.  A  highly  resilient  structure  is  given  the  cushion  for  the  pocket  table, 
and  one  less  so  for  the  carom.  The  latter  is  preferred  for  more  accurate  angle  pJay, 
position  and  nursing.  Nursing,  means  to  keep  the  three  balls  as  close  to  one  another 
as  possible. 

The  base  of  the  triangle  is  grooved  for  the  twofold  purpose  of  making  the  rubber 
adhere  better  to  the  rail,  and  to  increase  resiliency.  In  fastening  the  rubber,  utmost 
care  must  be  exercised  to  have  it  attached  to  the  rail,  so  that  when  the  latter  is 
fastened  to  the  bed  there  shall  be  uniform  height  all  around  the  table;  otherwise 
the  ball  when  it  strikes  the  cushion  will  be  deflected  from  the  true  course  or  rebound. 

On  top  of  the  rail  next  to  the  cushion  edge  a  narrow  l_  is  cut  the  entire  length. 
The  cushion  forms  the  other  side,  making  a  square  groove,  thus  LJ. 

The  cushion  is  now  ready  to  be  covered  with  the  cloth. 

The  latter,  made  of  the  same  material  as  the  bed  cloth,  is  cut  to  fit.  One  edge  is 
tucked  into  the  groove  just  described,  with  the  outside,  or  face,  downward.  A  tight- 
fitting  ferule  is  then  forced  into  the  groove,  thus  holding  the  cloth  firmly  between  the 
cushion  and  the  rail.  The  cloth  is  then  drawn  over  the  top  of  the  ferule,  hiding  the 
latter  from  sight,  and  is  drawn  down  over  the  rubber  and  fastened  on  the  under  side 
of  the  rail  with  steel  tacks.  Great  care  and  much  experience  is  necessary  to  success- 
fully  conduct  this  apparenty  simple  operation;  for  it  is  quite  easy  to  pull  the  cloth 
so  tightly  at  different  points  as  to  bend  out  of  shape  the  apex  to  the  rubber  triangle. 
On  the  other  hand,  not  to  pull  it  tight  enough  will  leave  the  cloth  loose,  which  is  not 
only  unsightly,  but  will  impair  the  rubber  and  destroy  the  accuracy  of  the  balls 
rebounding  from  it. 

The  completed  rail  is  then  covered  with  a  finishing  strip,  known  as  the  blind 
rail,  which  covers  the  unsightly  bolt  heads  and  adds  to  the  artistic  effect  of  the  table. 
On  the  cheap  grades  there  are  no  blind  rails,  the  bolts  being  decorated  with  brass  caps. 

The  final  operation  is  the  construction  of  pockets. 

The  pocket  irons  are  semi-circular  pieces  of  metal  with  flat  flanges  extending 
at  right  angles  at  both  ends  of  the  arc.  Stout  black  leather  is  stitched  around  the 
round  part  of  the  iron,  thus  hiding  the  latter,  and  affording  a  good  hold  to  which  the 
leather,  or  worsted  knitted,  baskets  are  attached,  and  protection  for  billiard  balls 
when  striking. 

The  flanges  are  sunk  flush  into  the  top  of  the  rail;  thus  the  pocket  iron  spans  the 
interstices  between  the  rails.  The  half  of  the  pocket  net  not  attached  to  the  irons  is 
tacked  to  the  edge  of  the  frame,  underneath  the  bed,  and  covered  with  red  leather, 
to  withstand  wear  and  for  decorative  effect. 

Four  hooks  are  then  fastened  to  the  frame,  underneath  the  table,  near  the  corner 
legs.  These  are  termed  bridge  hooks  and  are  for  the  purpose  of  having  the  cue- 
bridge  ready  of  access  for  the  players  when  necessary. 

The  table  is  thus  completed  for  playing  use.  There  are  ingenious  devices,  termed 
the  "return  gutters"  and  convertible  rails,  which  are  worthy  of  description. 

In  tables  thus  equipped,  the  base  of  the  pocket  is  opened — a  stiff  leather,  funnel- 
shaped  contrivance  being  substituted  for  the  woolen  or  open  leather  pocket.  This 
funnel  opening  leads  into  a  wooden  canal  or  gutter,  the  main  stem  of  which  runs  on 
an  incline  the  length  of  the  table  underneath.  From  this  center  gutter  debouches 


THE  STORY  IN  A  BILLIARD  TABLE 313 

branch  to  each  of  the  pockets.  The  gutters  are  lined  with  rubber,  to  render  noiseless 
the  balls  as  they  roll  from  the  pocket  openings  into  and  along  the  gutters,  at  the 
lowest  point  of  which — the  head  of  the  table — they  fall  into  the  "  receiver."  The 
latter  is  a  specially  designed  box,  felt  lined,  with  sufficient  capacity  to  contain  the 
fifteen  balls  used  in  the  pocket  game. 

The  gutter  return  is  a  great  convenience  in  collecting  the  balls  to  rack  them  for 
a  new  game. 

Carom  tables  have  no  pockets. 

Carom  and  pocket  billiards  are  so  different  that  either  they  must  be  played  on 
separate  tables,  or  else  the  rails  are  so  constructed  as  to  be  interchangeable.  The 
billiard  expert  is  not  satisfied  unless  the  whole  rail  is  changed.  This  is  done  by 
building  the  table  without  the  regular  rails,  and  by  having  a  separate  set  of  rails  for 
each  game,  which  are  held  in  position  by  clamps  and  quickly  interchanged.  They 
conform  to  the  general  design  and  decoration  of  the  table. 

Another  method  is  merely  to  change  the  cushions.     The  back  of  the  rubber  is 
reinforced  by  a  wood  strip,  into  which  are  placed  metal  sockets.     Bolts  or  ratchets 
are  inserted  through  the  rail,  and  damp  the  cushion  to  the  wall  of  the  rail.     The 
convertible    rails,    however,    be- 
cause of  their  rigidity,  are  more 
desirable    than    the    convertible 
cushions. 

The  cheapest  and  most  un- 
satisfactory device  is  known  as 
pocket  plugs.  On  a  permanently 
constructed  pocket  table,  right- 
angled  plugs  of  the  rubber  cushion 
are  screwed  to  the  corner  pocket 
irons  and  straight  sections  are 
screwed  to  the  side  pocket  irons.  A  MODERN  HIGH-CLASS  POCKET  BILLIARD  TABLE 
These,  however,  never  perfectly 
fit  at  the  cushion  joints,  consequently  carom  play  at  those  points  is  put  of  the  question. 

Cheap  cues  are  made  in  one  continuous  piece;  or  a  special  piece  for  the  "butt" 
and  one  for  the  shaft  of  the  cue.  The  "butt"  and  body  are  dovetailed  together. 

In  making  a  high-grade  cue,  a  choice  piece  of  imported  wood,  such  as  ebony, 
mahogany,  or  rosewood,  is  cut  into  blocks  about  three  inches  square  and  twenty 
inches  long.  One  of  these  is  then  roughly  turned  down  on  a  lathe  until  it  is  round 
and  slightly  tapers  all  the  way  from  one  end  to  the  other.  At  the  narrow  end  it  is 
then  sawed  four  ways  toward  the  thicker  end,  a  distance  of  seven  inches.  This  is  the 
"butt."  The  next  section  of  either  domestic  or  imported  hard  wood  is  forty-four 
inches  long.  This,  too,  receives  a  rough  rotundity  and  tapering  on  a  lathe.  At  the 
thicker  end,  a  sawing-out  process  creates  an  opening,  so  that  the  "butt"  and  shaft 
can  dovetail  to  a  depth  of  seven  inches. 

The  cue  is  then  sawed  across  into  halves.  On  the  base  of  the  upper  half  a  hard 
wood  screw  is  inserted  and  at  the  top  of  the  butt  a  threaded  hole  is  bored.  To 
strengthen  the  'joint,  the  hollow  screw-hole  end  is  capped  with  an  ivory  ferule  sunk 
flush  with  the  surface.  This  is  the  jointed  cue — a  great  convenience  to  the  player 
who  travels  or  carries  his  cue  home  when  he  plays  at  the  club  or  public  academy. 

At  the  narrow  end  of  the  cue,  the  tapering  ceases  about  three-quarters  of  an 
inch  from  the  end  and  flanges  out  according  to  the  kind  of  "tip"  the  player  prefers. 
This  end  is  capped  with  an  ivory  ferule  and  upon  the  top  of  the  latter,  the  leather  tip 
is  glued. 

Before  this  latter  operation,  the  finished  tapering,  smoothing,  varnishing  and 
polishing  is  done  by  hand. 


314 THE  STORY  IN  A  BILLIARD  TABLE 

Sometimes  a  flat  surface  a  few  inches  long  is  planed  on  the  circumference  of  the 
cue,  extending  up  from  the  butt  end  and  a  mother-of-pearl  name  plate  is  sunk  into 
the  handle. 

Cues  run  in  weight  from  fifteen  to  twenty-two  ounces.  This  means  the  manu- 
facture of  cues  according  to  weight,  as  well  as  taper,  material,  finish  and  quality  of 
the  tip.  Each  of  these  embrace  a  mass  of  detail  too  voluminous  for  recital  here. 

The  Balls. — In  the  past,  as  far  as  we  can  historically  trace,  billiard  balls  were 
made  of  ivory.  Until  recently  no  superior  substitute  had  been  invented,  but  it  is 
the  consensus  of  opinion  among  expert  billiardists  that  the  newly  manufactured 


MAKING  CUES 

synthetic  ivory  ball  is  equal,  if  not  superior,  in  action  and  wearing  quality,  to 
real  ivory. 

Elephant-tusk  ivory,  the  only  kind  used  in  billiard  ball  manufacturing,  is  growing 
scarcer  every  year,  with  a  consequent  increase  in  price. 

In  the  ivory  storage  vaults  of  one  large  company,  there  is  held  from  $150,000 
to  $300,000  worth  of  ivory,  ranging  from  the  tusk  up  to  the  finished  product. 

Ivory  is  of  cellular,  not  fibrous,  construction.  Through  the  center  of  the  tusk 
runs  the  great  nerve  of  the  tooth.  The  structural  cells  build  up  around  the  nerve. 
Surrounding  the  nerve,  the  cells  are  small  and  more  compact.  As  the  tusk  grows 
in  length  on  the  living  elephant  it  also  expands;  but  the  cells  grow  larger  and  less 
compact  as  the  tusk  expands  in  circumference.  It  is  quite  apparent,  therefore,  that 
the  weight  centers  around  the  nerve.  To  have  a  perfectly  balanced  ball,  one  that 
will  roll  true  in  every  direction,  the  ball  must  be  so  turned  out  of  the  tusk  that  the 
nerve  center  runs  exactly  through  the  middle  of  the  ball. 

The  process  is  as  follows:  The  tusk  is  sawed  into  blocks  about  2%  inches  in  size. 
These  are  of  irregular  cylindrical  form,  depending  on  the  form  of  the  tusk's  circum- 
ference. Only  that  portion  of  the  tusk  can  be  used,  the  diameter  of  which  is  greater 
than  the  intended  diameter  of  the  ball.  The  rest  of  the  tusk  is  used  for  ornaments, 
piano  keys,  etc.  At  least  six  inches  from  the  point  of  the  tusk  must  be  discarded 
because  the  circumference  is  too  small.  The  hollow  part  at  the  base  of  the  tusk 
must  also  be  discarded.  There  are  defects  discovered  only  when  the  ball  is  being 
turned  or  the  segments  cut.  For  all  of  the  discarded  portions  and  the  fragments  and 


THE   STORY  IN  A  BILLIARD  TABLE 315 

shavings  from  the  segments  when  the  ball  is  turned,  the  manufacturer  receives  less 
than  one-fourth  of  the  price  per  pound  which  he  paid  for  the  whole  tusk. 

A  segment  is  placed  in  a  lathe — with  the  nerve  center  resting  on  the  lathe  point. 
The  ball  is  then  either  turned  down  from  the  outside  or  cut  out  with  an  ingeniously 
constructed  curved  cutter  from  the  inside  of  the  segment.  In  the  latter  operation 
the  ball  lies  loose  in  the  center  of  the  segment,  which  must  be  sawed  in  half  to  release 
it.  Ivory  seasons  only  to  a  slight  depth.  The  thin  seasoning  on  the  surface  seems 
to  act  as  a  shell  which  keeps  raw  the  substance  underneath.  For  this  reason,  when 
a  ball  is  turned  out  of  the  tusk  and  the  raw  ivory  thus  exposed,  the  ball  is  stored 
away  in  a  room  of  even  temperature  for  about  a  year,  that  it  may  properly  season 
before  being  finished.  The  red  ball  is  dyed  after  seasoning,  and  at  the  time  of  final 
turning  called  finishing. 

Another  peculiarity  about  ivory  is  the  fact  that,  owing  to  the  cellular  construc- 
tion, in  seasoning  the  ball  never  contracts  at  the  nerve  ends,  but  always  around  the 
other  circumference,  termed  the  "belly."  Therefore,  when  the  balls  are  turned,  the 
circumference  around  the '"belly"  is  made  greater  than  around  the  nerve  ends,  to 
allow  for  the  shrinkage  in  the  former.  Each  manufacturer  carefully  guards  the  secret 
of  his  allowance,  which  is  made  according  to  his  experience  and  knowledge  of  ivory 
seasoning  variations. 

After  seasoning,  the  balls  are  smoothed  with  shagreen  and  polished. 

Except  for  the  cue  ball,  no  ivory  balls  are  used  today  on  the  pocket  table.  As  a 
substitute,  a  great  variety  of  composition  balls  are  used.  The  composition  is  another 
trade  secret.  Having  been  carefully  weighed  in  a  perfectly  dry  state,  the  necessary 
amount  of  composition  is  placed  in  a  telescoping  steel  cylinder,  the  two  ends  of  which 
are  perfect  hemispheres  and  the  diameter  of  which  on  the  inside  is  the  exact  diameter 
of  the  proposed  ball.  The  cylinder  is  then  placed  in  a  hydraulic  press  and  under  a 
pressure  of  30,000  pounds  to  the  square  inch,  the  cylinder  and  its  contents  are 
telescoped  until  the  mass  inside  is  perfectly  round. 

The  molded  ball  is  then  taken  from  the  press  and  smoothed.  The  holes  for 
the  number  tablets  are  bored  and  the  tablets  forced  into  position.  The  tablets  are 
made  to  conform  to  the  rotundity  of  the  ball  and  set  flush  with  the  surface.  The  ball 
is  then  smoothed  and  polished. 

The  cue  bridge  handle  is  made  in  a  manner  similar  to  the  cue,  except  that  it  is 
not  jointed  and  the  span  is  substituted  for  the  tip.  The  span  has  four  slots  along  the 
top,  which  maintains  a  contour  to  assist  the  player  in  striking  the  ball  on  either  side, 
or  top  or  bottom  of  the  center  facing  the  player,  when  the  cue  ball  is  too  far  away  to 
make  the  bridge  with  his  hand  and  fingers.  The  span  is  made  of  either  hard  wood 
or  ivory. 

The  temperate  and  torrid  zones  of  the  world  are  ransacked  in  order  to  secure  the 
wood,  the  minerals  and  the  animal  substances,  all  of  which  are  necessary  to  provide 
the  means  of  play.  Those  of  us  who  play  the  game  (none  of  us,  not  even  Willis  Hoppe, 
know  all  its  possibilities)  may  well  paraphrase  Thomas  Carlyle's  reference  to  books 
and  say,  "  Blessings  on  Herodotus,  or  whoever  it  was  who  invented  billiards." 


What  is  the  Hottest  Place  in  the  United  States? 

A  narrow  valley  in  California,  called  "Death  Valley,"  between  the  Panamint 
and  Funeral  Mountains,  is  considered  the  dryest  and  hottest  place  in  the  United 
States. 

Its  central  part  is  three  or  four  hundred  feet  below  sea  level  and  is  covered  with 
salt.  Its  temperature  has  reached  the  extreme  of  122°  F. 

It  is  called  "Death  Valley"  because  a  party  of  emigrants  perished  there  in  1849. 


316 


WHAT  ARE  WHITE  BLACKBERRIES  LIKE 


THE  SPINELESS  CACTUS  IN  FRUIT 


WHAT  ARE  WHITE  BLACKBERRIES  LIKE  317 

What  are  White  Blackberries  Like? 

The  accompanying  illustrations  show  some  remarkable  white  blackberries  which 
have  been  developed  by  the  great  horticulturist,  Luther  Burbank  of  California. 
They  grow  thickly,  are  large  in  size  and  the  taste  is  similar  to  that  of  the  ordinary 
variety.  Some  spineless  cactus  in  fruit  are  also  shown.  They  make  an  excellent 
cattle  food. 

He  has  also  originated  a  new  fruit,  the  plumcot,  by  combining  the  plum  and 
the  apricot;  developed  very  excellent  varieties  of  potatoes  and  cherries;  and  pro- 
duced various  new  apples  and  stoneless  prunes  as  well  as  new  peaches,  nuts,  roses, 
callas,  violet-odored  lilies  and  many  other  new  varieties. 

The  son  of  a  Massachusetts  farmer,  he  became  deeply  interested  in  plant  life 
and  engaged  in  experiments  on  hybridization  of  plants.  Removing  to  California,  he 
established  the  Burbank  Exposition  Farms  at  Santa  Rosa,  where  he  undertook  the 
work  of  cross-breeding  on  an  extended  scale.  In  1905  the  Carnegie  Institute  granted 
him  $10,000  yearly  for  ten  years  to  continue  his  work.  He  has  very  many  extensive 
experiments  under  way  and  has  nearly  3,000  distinct  botanical  specimens  in  his 
plantation. 

Why  do  They  Have  a  Dog-Watch  on  Shipboard? 

The  "dog-watch"  is  a  nautical  term  distinguishing  two  watches  of  two  hours 
each,  from  4  to  6  P.  M.  and  6  to  8  P.  M. 

All  the  other  watches  count  four  hours  each,  and  without  the  introduction  of 
the  dog-watches,  the  same  hours  would  always  fall  to  be  kept  as  watch  by  the  same 
portion  of  the  crew. 

How  Much  Gold  has  a  14-Carat  Ring? 

One  often  speaks  of  a  ring  as  being  14-carat  gold,  or  of  22-  or  18-carat  watch 
cases  or  jewelry,  but  do  all  of  us  know  just  what  we  mean  by  14,  18  or  22  carat? 

Gold  is  divided  into  twenty-four  parts — that  is,  pure  gold  is  said  to  contain 
twenty-four  carats — the  carat  being  just  a  measurement  term.  A  ring  or  watch 
case  marked  14K  or  18K  means  that  fourteen  or  eighteen  parts  of  it  are  pure  gold, 
the  balance  of  the  twenty-four  carats  being  some  sort  of  alloy,  copper  being  generally 
used.  If  articles  of  jewelry  were  made  of  pure  gold  they  would  not  wear  well,  as 
gold  is  a  very  soft  metal,  and  it  is,  therefore,  necessary  to  mix  the  gold  with  some 
harder  substance. 

What  is  an  Electro-Magnet? 

An  electro-magnet  is  a  piece  of  iron  temporarily  converted  into  a  magnet  by 
means  of  a  current  of  electricity  sent  through  a  wire  which  is  coiled  around  it.  The 
wire  is  usually  covered  with  silk,  cotton,  gutta  percha  or  some  other  insulator,  to 
prevent  the  current  from  leaping  across,  and  compel  it  to  travel  through  the  whole 
length  of  the  wire. 

The  more  pure  and  soft  the  iron  is,  the  stronger  will  its  magnetism  be  while  it 
lasts,  and  the  more  completely  will  it  disappear  when  the  current  stops.  Steel  is  less 
affected  than  soft  iron  for  the  time,  but  remains  permanently  magnetized  after  the 
current  ceases.  Electro-magnets  are  usually  much  more  powerful  than  other  magnets 
of  the  same  size. 

The  iron  which  is  magnetized  by  the  current  passing  around  it  is  called  the 
core.  It  is  frequently  straight,  the  wire  being  wound  upon  it  like  thread  upon  a 
reel;  but  very  frequently  it  has  the  shape  of  a  U  or  horseshoe,  the  wire  being  coiled 
round  the  two  ends  and  the  bend  of  the  U  left  uncovered. 


The  Story  in  a  Pin* 

A  pin,  so  common  and  so  cheap  today,  was  once  so  expensive  that  only  the 
wealthy  could  afford  even  a  few.  The  term  pin-money  dates  from  that  time  and 
originally  came  from  the  allowance  a  husband  gave  his  wife  to  purchase  pins. 

From  an  historical  point  of  view,  it  appears  that  the  need  of  something  with 
which  to  fasten  together  pieces  of  cloth  and  like  material  has  been  met  from  ancient 
times  by  various  devices.  Among  the  remains  of  the  bronze  age  are  found  pins  and 

brooches  of  bronze.     In  Egyptian  tombs  have  been 

s         ~^\  found  elaborate  and  costly  pins,  which  range  in  sizes 

/  j  from  two  inches  to  seven  or  eight  inches  long,  and 

I  have  large  gold  heads  or  bands  of  gold  around  the 

^"^   ^""""""•~  upper  end.     Designs  were  often  worked  on  these 

heads  and  bands.  The  largest  of  these  pins  were 
probably  used  for  fastening  the  haii .  Till  the  middle 
of  the  sixteenth  century  the  poorer  class  in  England 
used  rude  skewers  of  wood,  while  the  more  fortunate 
had  pins  made  of  gold,  silver  and  brass.  The  Indians, 
in  the  ancient  cities  of  Mexico,  satisfied  their  need 
for  pins  by  using  the  thorn  of  the  agave. 

As  early  as  1483,  pins  were  important  enough  in 
England  to  warrant  the  passing  of  a  law  by  Parlia- 
ment prohibiting  their  importation.  By  1540, 
however,  they  were  being  imported  in  large  quan- 
tities from  France.  Parliament  again  passed  a  law 
regarding  pins  in  1543.  This  act  provided  that  "no 
person  shall  put  to  sale  any  pins,  but  only  such  as 
shall  be  double-headed,  and  have  the  heads  soldered 
fast  to  the  shank  of  the  pin,  well  smoothed,  and 
shanks  well  shapen,  the  points  well  round  filed, 
canted,  and  sharpened."  Some  pins  of  good  quality 
were  made  at  this  time,  but  a  large  portion  of  those 
against  which  the  legislative  enactment  was  directed 
were  made  of  iron  wire,  blanched  and  passed  for 
brass  pins.  Only  three  years  after  this  prohibitory 
law  was  passed  it  became  obsolete  because  of  the 
improvements  which  had  been  made  in  the  pro- 
duction of  these  articles.  England  continued  to 
receive  its  supply  from  France  until  John  Tilsby 
began  their  manufacture  in  Gloucestershire.  His 

business  increased  to  such  an  extent  that  in  a  few  years  he  had  1,500  people  in 
his  employ.  In  1636  the  pinmakers  of  London  formed  a  corporation  and  established 
the  industry  of  Bristol  and  Birmingham.  This  latter  city  is  still  the  center  of  the 
industry  in  England. 

During  this  period  the  pins  were  made  with  two  coils  of  wire  fastened  at  one 
end  of  a  length  of  wire,  the  other  end  of  which  was  sharpened.  First  a  wire,  some- 
what finer  than  that  which  was  to  be  used  for  the  pin,  was  coiled  around  a  spit  on  a 

*  Illustrations  by  courtesy  of  the  American  Pin  Company. 

(318) 


THE  FIRST  PIN  is  A  FLAT- 
HEADED  COPPER  PIN  PROBABLY 
USED  FOR  FASTENING  HAIR.  THE 
SECOND  is  A  STAR-HEADED  BRONZE 
PIN.  BOTH  ARE  OF  THE  TYPES 
WHICH  HAVE  BEEN  FOUND  AMONG 
THE  REMAINS  OF  THE  BRONZE 
AGE.  THE  THIRD  PIN  is  A  HAND- 
MADE PIN  OF  THE  SEVENTEENTH 
CENTURY 


THE  STORY  IN  A  PIN 


319 


lathe.  This  was  cut  up  into  sections,  each  consisting  of  two  turns.  These  coils  were 
then  annealed  or  softened  and  placed  in  a  heap.  Boys  stuck  the  ends  of  the  pins, 
which  had  been  cut  to  the  proper  length,  into  this  pile  until  a  coil  stuck.  A  work- 
man pressed  this  coil  in  a  die  to  make  it  hold  to  the  pin.  The  head  was  then  soldered 
and  the  other  end  of  the  pin  filed  and  sharpened.  Finally  the  pin  was  straightened 
and  blanched  or  whitened. 

In  the  United  States  the  colonists  early  felt  the  need  of  local  production.  The 
colonial  legislature  of  Carolina  offered  prizes  in  1775  for  the  first  native-made  pins 
and  needles.  The  first  American  pins  were  made  in  Rhode  Island,  during  the  Revolu- 


A  VIEW  OF  THE  PIN  MACHINE  ROOM  IN  A  MODERN  PINMAKING  PLANT 

There  are  many  types  of  pin  machines  which  make  anywhere  from  ninety  to  three  hundred 
pins  a  minute,  depending  on  the  quality  of  the  pin  made. 

tion,  by  Jeremiah  Wilkinson.  About  the  same  time,  Samuel  Slocum  made  pins  in 
Providence.  These  were  handmade  with  twisted  wire  heads. 

Pinmaking  machines  were  first  invented  in  the  United  States.  During  the 
War  of  1812,  the  industry  was  started  because  of  the  difficulty  of  getting  pins  from 
England,  where  most  of  them  were  made.  The  industry  was  not  successful,  however, 
till  1836,  when  the  Howe  Manufacturing  Company  was  formed  at  Birmingham, 
Conn.  It  is  a  curious  coincident  that  the  first  successful  American  pin  manufacturing 
company,  making  the  new  machine-made  pins,  should  be  established  in  the  Con- 
necticut town  of  the  same  name  as  the  English  city  which  had  been  the  center  of 
pinmaking  for  nearly  two  hundred  years. 

In  1817  a  paper  was  filed  at  the  patent  office  by  Seth  Hunt,  describing  a  machine 


320 


THE  STORY  IN  A  PIN 


for  making  pins  with  "head,  shaft,  and  point  in  one  entire  piece."  This  machine, 
however,  did  not  come  into  use.  Lemuel  W.  Wright,  of  New  Hampshire,  secured, 
in  1824,  an  English  patent  for  a  machine  for  making  solid-headed  pins.  This  was 
the  beginning  of  the  present  industry.  A  factory  equipped  with  Wright's  machines 
was  established  in  London,  but  was  not  successful.  Daniel  Foot-Taylen,  of  Birming- 
ham, purchased  this  equipment  and  secured  an  extension  of  Wright's  patents  for 
five  years  from  1838.  He  carried  the  production  of  machine-made  pins  to  a  com- 
mercial basis.  Wright's  machines,  however,  did  not  complete  all  operations.  Dr. 
John  Neland  Howe,  a  physician  of  Bellevue  Hospital,  New  York  City,  formed  a 
company  hi  1832  for  the  manufacture  of  pins.  This  concern  was  not  successful, 


THE  WHITENING  ROOM,  WHERE  THE  PINS  ARE  CLEANED  AND  PLATED 

In  the  tumbling  barrels  the  pins  are  cleaned  and  dried  by  tumbling  in  sawdust  which  has 
been  heated  in  the  ovens  in  the  center  background. 

but  in  1835  a  second  company  was  formed  by  Dr.  Howe,  who  had  great  faith  in  the 
future  of  the  industry.  Nine  years  later,  Samuel  Slocum,  of  Connecticut,  invented 
a  new  machine  for  sticking  the  pins  on  papers. 

Since  that  time  there  have  been  many  pin  machines  developed,  each  accom- 
plishing the  same  result  in  slightly  different  ways.  In  each  case  a  special  stiff  phi 
wire  is  drawn  into  the  machine  from  a  large  hank,  which  is  placed  on  a  drum  on  the 
machine.  The  wire  is  first  passed  through  a  series  of  rapidly  revolving,  straightening 
rolls  which  take  out  all  twists  and  kinks.  The  proper  length  of  wire  is  fed  into  the 
machine  automatically,  and  the  end  is  gripped  by  a  set  of  jaws.  A  small  part  of 
the  end  of  the  wire  extends  beyond  the  jaws.  This  is  struck  several  rapid  blows 
by  a  die  called  the  header.  After  the  head  is  thus  formed,  the  wire  is  cut  off  to  the 
proper  length  and  is  then  ready  to  be  pointed.  It  is  now  carried  along  by  a  shaft 


THE  STORY  IN  A  PIN 


321 


SlZE^ 


having  .a  screw  thread,  and  is  made  to  revolve  rapidly  by  a  belt  which  passes  over 
it.  The  end  to  be  pointed  passes  over  a  series  of  coarse,  medium  and  fine  revolving 
files  or  cutters.  The  pin  now  drops  into  a  pan,  ready  to  be  finished  after  being 
inspected. 

In  the  finishing  room,  the  pins  are  put  into  a  revolving  or  tumbling  barrel  and 
are  rolled  in  sawdust,  which  absorbs  all  the  oil,  leaving  them  clean  and  bright. 
They  are  now  dropped  through  a  blower,  where  the  sawdust  is  separated  from  the 
pins.  The  whitening  is  done  by  boiling  the  pins  in  a  large  copper  kettle,  which  also 
contains  layers  of  grained  tin  and  a  solution  of  argol  or  bitartrate  of  potash.  After 
boiling  for  five  or  six  hours,  they  have  a  thin  coating  of  tin,  which  gives  them  their 
silvery  appearance.  Again  they  are  cleaned,  this  time  being  washed  in  clean  water, 
then  tumbled  in  strong  soap  water,  and  finally  tumbled  in  hot  sawdust  to  dry  them. 
The  pins  are  separated  from  the  sawdust  as  before.  From  there  the  pins  go  to  the 
sticking  department,  where  they  are  stuck  on  papers  as  you  buy  them.  The  sticking 
machine  is  of  a  simple  construction,  but  is  wonderful  in  operation,  and  requires  no 
attention  by  the  operator,  except  to  keep 
it  supplied  with  pins  and  papers. 

The  pins  are  put  into  a  vibrating 
hopper,  which  slopes  slightly  towards  the 
sticking  machine.  The  conductor  from 
the  hopper  to  the  machine  is  made  of  two 
strips  of  steel,  down  which  the  pins,  held 
by  their  heads,  slide.  They  are  taken  from 
the  conductor  by  a  screw  thread  and  fed 
to  the  carrier,  which  takes  thirty  pins  at  a 

time  and  places  them  in  front  of  a  set  of  DC       (VIC       SC 

thirty  punches.  They  are  then  forced  along 
thirty  grooves  in  the  steel  clamps,  which  crimp  the  paper,  and  on  through  the  crimp. 
Thus  a  whole  row  of  pins  is  stuck  at  once.  The  paper  is  now  advanced  the  proper 
distance,  and  another  row  is  stuck.  When  the  center  of  the  paper  is  reached,  after 
six  rows  have  been  stuck,  the  machine  automatically  spaces  the  paper  so  as  to  skip 
the  space  used  for  the  brand  name.  Then  six  more  rows  are  stuck,  and  the  operator 
removes  the  completed  paper  and  inserts  another  without  stopping  the  machine. 
These  papers  are  inspected  to  make  certain  that  no  poorly  made  pins  have  gotten 
by  the  former  inspection,  are  rolled  and  packed,  usually  in  boxes  of  twelve  papers  each. 

Pins  today  are  made  in  many  sizes  from  the  3j^>-inch  stout  blanket  pins  down 
to  the  fine,  slender,  bronze  pins  used  by  entomologists,  4,500  of  which  pins  make 
an  ounce.  Toilet  phis  are  usually  made  in  six  sizes  as  shown  in  the  illustrations. 
Besides  the  common  or  toilet  pins,  there  are  today  numerous  special  bank  and  desk 
pins  which  are  made  to  meet  special  requirements. 

Pin  production  in  the  United  States  has  reached  a  high  stage  of  development. 
The  number  of  pins  made  in  1914  reached  the  tremendous  total  of  25,000,000,000. 
These  figures  are  almost  too  great  for  comprehension.  If  all  the  pin  wire  used  for 
these  25,000,000,000  pins  were  in  one  piece  it  would  go  around  the  earth  fifteen  times. 

Safety  pins,  hooks  and  eyes,  and  hairpins,  are  generally  made  by  pin  concerns. 
Each  of  these  different  articles  require  very  ingenious  machines.  Many  of  them 
are  almost  human  in  their  operation. 


BB        SW 


The  popular  name  of  the  prominence  seen  in  the  front  of  the  throat  in  a  man 
is  called  the  "Adam's  apple"  because  of  the  story  in  the  Old  Testament,  telling  of 
the  eating  of  the  forbidden  fruit  of  the  tree  of  knowledge  by  Adam,  a  piece  being 
supposed  to  have  lodged  in  his  throat  where  the  bulge  appears. 


322 


HOW  ARE  GLACIERS  FORMED 


AN  ALPINE  GLACIER 


THE  MER  DE  GLACE 

The  upper  view  shows  the  method  of  crossing  a  glacier,  ^ach  of  the  climbers  is 
carrying  an  alpenstock,  or  staff  with  ice  ax  at  one  end  and  spike  at  the  other.  The 
lower  view  is  the  famous  sea  of  ice  in  Switzerland. 


HOW  ARE  GLACIERS  FORMED 


323 


324 HOW  ARE  GLACIERS  FORMED 

How  are  Glaciers  Formed? 

Away  up  in  the  high  valleys  lormed  among  the  peaks  of  the  tallest  mountain 
ranges  of  both  the  Rocky  Mountains  and  the  mountains  of  Alaska,  as  well  as  those 
in  Switzerland  and  European  countries,  the  snow  freezes  into  great  solid  masses 
because  of  the  intense  cold,  and  is  forced  by  its  own  pressure  into  vast  fields  and 
mountains  of  ice.  This  ice  is  not  like  that  produced  by  the  freezing  of  water,  but 
resembles  more  a  very  hard,  solid  form  of  snow,  being  composed  of  thin  layers  filled 
with  air  bubbles  and  more  brittle  and  less  transparent  than  the  ice  we  are  accustomed 
to  see.  Glaciers  exist  in  all  zones  in  which  mountains  rise  above  the  snow-line,  that 
is,  the  height  where  it  is  so  cold  that  there  is  always  snow. 

We  all  know  that  if  we  press  two  pieces  of  ordinary  ice  together  each  piece  will 
melt  at  the  place  where  it  touches  the  other  and  just  in  that  same  way  the  pressure 
of  the  ice  above  them  causes  glaciers  to  be  continually  moving  downward,  frequently 
reaching  the  borders  of  cultivation  even.  As  they  descend  they  also  experience 
a  gradual  diminution  from  the  action  of  the  sun  and  rain,  and  from  the  heat  of  the 
earth.  Investigation  has  shown  that  they  move  very  much  like  a  river,  the  middle 
and  upper  parts  faster  than  the  sides  and  bottom,  similar  to  the  way  in  which  a 
mass  of  thick  mortar  or  a  quantity  of  pitch  flows  down  an  inclined  trough.  The 
rate  at  which  a  glacier  moves  generally  varies  from  eighteen  to  twenty-four  inches 
in  a  day. 

The  Glacier  National  Park  is  the  latest  addition  to  the  series  of  great  natural 
attractions  which  the  United  States  Government  has  been  acquiring  for  years.  It 
lies  in  Northern  Montana,  between  the  Canadian  border  and  the  line  of  the  Great 
Northern  Railroad,  and  contains  about  a  million  acres  of  natural  wonders,  ranging 
from  verdant  valleys  and  wooded  heights  to  glacial  peaks.  There  are  numerous 
glaciers  and  mountain  lakes  and  the  locality  presents  many  examples  of  sublime 
scenery.  The  City  of  Tacoma,  Washington,  is  situated  in  the  valley  below  Mt. 
Rainier  and  commands  a  wonderful  view  of  that  mountain,  on  which  there  is  situated 
one  of  the  largest  glacial  systems  in  the  world  radiating  from  any  single  peak. 

One  of  the  most  famous  glaciers  of  the  Alps  is  the  Mer  de  Glace,  belonging  to 
Mont  Blanc,  in  the  valley  of  Chamouni,  about  fifty-seven  hundred  feet  above  the 
level  of  the  sea.  Those  of  the  Andes  and  the  Southern  Alps  of  New  Zealand  are 
conspicuous,  and  they  abound  in  Norway,  Iceland  and  Spitzbergen,  but  it  is  more 
especially  in  the  chain  of  Monte  Rosa  that  the  phenomena  of  glaciers  are  exhibited 
in  their  greatest  wonder,  as  also  in  their  most  interesting  phases  from  a  scientific 
point  of  view. 

How  Large  are  Molecules? 

When  a  great  scientist  named  Sir  William  Thomson  was  asked  about  the  size 
of  a  molecule,  he  replied:  "If  a  drop  of  water  were  magnified  to  the  size  of  the  earth, 
the  molecules  would  each  occupy  spaces  greater  than  those  filled  by  small  shot  and 
smaller  than  those  occupied  by  cricket  balls."  That  gives  us  about  as  clear  an  idea 
as  it  is  possible  to  get  of  the  size  of  molecules.  And  yet  molecules  are  made  up  of 
even  smaller  particles,  called  atoms.  An  atom  is  the  smallest  division  of  anything 
that  we  know  about  now. 

A  molecule  of  water  is  made  up  of  three  atoms.  Evaporation  of  water  con- 
sists of  the  movement  of  these  atoms  in  such  a  way  as  to  make  the  liquid  water 
change  into  a  gas.  Freezing  water  into  ice  is  caused  by  making  the  molecules,  and, 
in  turn,  the  atoms,  stick  to  each  other.  It  takes  a  great  deal  of  power  to  separate 
the  molecules  in  water,  and  for  this  reason  water  was  long  regarded  as  something 
which  could  not  be  divided  up,  or,  in  other  words,  a  basic  element,  such  as  the 
oxygen  in  the  air 


PICTORIAL  STORY  OF  THE  FISHING  INDUSTRY    325 


• 


326    PICTORIAL  STORY  OF  THE  FISHING  INDUSTRY 


PICTORIAL  STORY  OF  THE  FISHING  INDUSTRY    327 


328    PICTORIAL  STORY  OF  THE  FISHING  INDUSTRY 


PICTORIAL  STORY  OF  THE  FISHING  INDUSTRY    329 


330    PICTORIAL  STORY  OF  THE  FISHING  INDUSTRY 


The  Story  in  a  Box  of  California 

Oranges 

For  several  hundred  years  oranges  have  grown  in  this  country.  For  about 
tne  last  forty  years  men  have  made  a  business  of  growing  them. 

Oranges  and  lemons  are  called  citrus  fruits  on  account  of  their  content  of  citric 
acid. 

The  two  predominating  varieties  in  California  are  the  Washington  Navel  and 
the  Valencia  orange. 

The  California  Navel  orange  is  in  the  markets  of  the  country  from  December  1st 
until  about  June  1st,  when  the  California  Valencia  type  takes  its  place  and  remains 
until  the  latter  part  of  November. 

It  is  a  fact,  therefore,  that  oranges  are  now  picked  fresh  every  day  the  year 
round  in  this  country,  and  that  the  California  oranges  you  buy  in  the  summer  are 
not  fruit  that  has  been  held  in  storage,  but  are  as  fresh  as  any  fresh  fruit  that  the 
retailers  offer. 

Most  California  oranges  and  lemons  are  picked  from  the  trees  by  gloved  hands, 
so  that  the  finger  nails  of  the  pickers  will  not  injure  the  skin,  for  even  a  tiny  scratch 
on  the  skin  of  an  orange  or  lemon  is  sufficient  to  open  the  way  for  germs  of  decay. 

Mr.  G.  Harold  Powell,  formerly  connected  with  the  United  States  government, 
was  the  discoverer  of  this  source  of  great  loss  to  the  citrus  industry.  The  use  of 
gloves  in  the  picking  is  thought  to  save  the  growers  approximately  $1,000,000  yearly. 

When  the  oranges  have  been  picked  they  are  sent  in  boxes  to  a  packing  house 
where  they  are  put  through  an  automatic  washing  machine  which  thoroughly  scrubs 
all  dust  and  dirt  from  th3  skin;  they  then  pass  through  a  dryer  and  thence  along  a 
belt  to  men  and  women  who  roll  the  oranges  over  for  examination  and  distribute 
them  to  other  belts  according  to  their  color  and  the  condition  of  the  skin  with  regard 
to  blemishes  of  all  kinds.  The  oranges  then  pass  over  automatic  sizers — that  is, 
V-shaped  rollers  revolving  horizontally.  The  oranges  continue  along  these  rollers 
until  the  space  between  the  rollers  has  widened  to  the  point  where  each  particular 
size  drops  into  a  labeled  bin.  The  sizes  are  designated  by  numbers,  such  as  150, 
176,  250,  etc.,  these  figures  signifying  the  number  of  oranges  that  may  be  packed 
in  a  regulation  size  box  in  which  the  jobbers  and  retailers  buy  the  fruit.  In  other 
words,  size  150  is  a  larger  orange  than  250. 

The  quality  of  an  orange  is  judged  in  the  packing  house  merely  by  the  color 
and  the  condition  of  the  skin.  Size  has  something  to  do  with  it,  but  this  is  only  one 
consideration.  Many  of  the  smaller  oranges  are  just  as  good  to  eat  and  sometimes 
very  much  better  than  the  larger  sizes,  and  the  condition  of  the  skin,  unless  it  happens 
to  be  broken  in  any  way  so  that  germs  of  decay  can  enter,  ordinarily  has  no  depreciable 
effect  upon  the  flavor.  The  public,  of  course,  finally  judges  an  orange  by  its  sweet- 
ness and  tenderness,  and  a  large,  well-colored,  smooth  fruit  is  likely  to  reach  the 
market  in  better  condition  than  the  rougher  fruit  which  has  a  marred  skin. 

Oranges  are  usually  divided  in  grades  into  four  classes  called,  in  the  order  of 
their  quality,  Extra  Choice,  Choice,  Standards  and  Culls. 

Lemons  are  handled  throughout  the  processes  in  practically  the  same  manner 
as  oranges. 

After  the  fruit  has  passed  the  graders  and  the  several  sizes  are  separated,  it 

(331) 


332      STORY  IN  A  BOX  OF  CALIFORNIA  ORANGES 


STORY  IN  A  BOX  OF  CALIFORNIA  ORANGES       333 

goes  to  the  packers,  who  pick  up  each  orange  or  lemon  and  place  a  tissue  wrapper 
around  it,  and  press  it  firmly  into  the  shipping  box  until  the  fruit  " stands  up  high" 
above  the  top  of  the  box.  The  cover  is  then  nailed  on  and  the  box  is  placed  in  the 
freight  car  which  is  waiting  at  a  convenient  door.  The  average  car  carries  400  boxes 
of  oranges  or  lemons. 

The  fruit  is  shipped  in  refrigerator  cars,  and  is  usually  about  eight  days  in  making 
the  trip  from  Southern  California  to  the  Eastern  markets. 

The  California  Fruit  Growers'  Exchange  ships  on  an  average  of  sixty-five  per 
cent  of  the  California  production  of  citrus  fruits.  This  is  a  strictly  non-profit,  co-opera- 
tive organization  of  8,000  growers,  the  largest  body  of  agriculturists  operating  on 
the  non-profit  co-operative  plan  in  the  world,  and  probably  the  most  successful. 
At  least,  the  cost  to  market  the  citrus  crop  under  this  system  is  lower  than  the 
marketing  cost  of  any  other  agricultural  crop  in  the  world,  which  accounts  in  part 
for  the  fact  that  oranges  and  lemons  are  sold  throughout  the  United  States  at  retail 
prices  which  place  this  fruit  within  the  reach  of  all. 


What  Kind  of  Steel  Knives  do  not  Stain  nor  Rust? 

Shortly  after  the  first  of  the  year,  in  1916,  the  U.  S.  Consul  at  Sheffield,  England, 
reported  that  a  new  steel  had  been  introduced  there  for  use  in  making  table  cutlery. 
It  was  said  to  be  untarnishable  and  unstainable  even  when  used  with  the  strongest 
acid  foods,  as  well  as  non-rusting.  The  new  product,  which  is  called  "Tirth's  Stain- 
less" steel,  can  be  thoroughly  cleansed  by  ordinary  washing  with  soap  and  water, 
and  cutlery  made  from  it  will  retain  its  original  polish  after  use.  The  properties 
claimed  for  it  are  of  the  steel  itself  and  not  the  result  of  any  treatment;  consequently 
knives  made  from  the  new  product  can  easily  be  sharpened  in  the  regular  way  without 
fear  of  resulting  damage. 

While  the  initial  cost  of  cutlery  made  from  "Tirth's  Steel"  will  probably  be 
about  double  the  usual  cost,  for  not  only  is  the  price  of  the  steel  considerably  more 
than  that  of  other  steels  used  for  the  same  purpose,  but  it  also  costs  more  to  work 
up,  it  is  nevertheless  expected  to  prove  a  welcome  discovery  to  restaurant  and  hotel 
keepers  as  well  as  other  large  users  of  table  cutlery  because  of  the  immense  saving 
in  labor  occasioned  by  its  use. 

Why  is  it  Necessary  to  Keep  Unusually  Quiet  when  Fishing? 

The  experienced  fisherman  who  smiles  at  the  amateur's  restless  fidgeting  and 
complaining  has  discovered  by  careful  observation  that  the  fish  who  swims  around 
in  such  an  exasperating  manner  just  a  foot  or  so  away  from  the  temptingly  baited 
hook  has  had  an  advance  tip  that  something  out  of  the  ordinary  is  going  on  up  above 
him.  For  sound,  whether  it  be  the  noise  of  an  oarlock  or  a  companion's  casual 
remark,  can  be  heard  more  than  four  times  as  easily  by  the  fish  in  the  water  beneath 
than  it  can  up  above  in  the  air.  Sound  travels  very  quickly  through  the  air,  traversing 
ten  hundred  and  ninety  feet  in  a  second,  but  it  reaches  forty-seven  hundred  feet 
away  under  water  in  the  same  time. 

When  the  crowd  on  the  other  side  of  the  baseball  grounds  yells  across  the  field 
it  seems  as  though  we  have  heard  their  cheers  as  soon  as  they  have  been  given,  and 
so  we  have  for  all  practical  purposes,  although  in  reality  half  a  second  has  elapsed 
while  the  sound  has  been  coming  across  the  field.  The  time  taken  by  sound  in 
traveling  is  more  apparent  when  the  volume  is  sufficient  to  carry  it  a  long  distance. 
The  sound  of  an  explosion  of  a  large  quantity  of  dynamite  and  ammunition  in 
Jersey  City  was  not  heard  in  Philadelphia,  ninety  miles  away,  for  over  seven  minutes 
alter  it  occurred. 


334 


THE  FIRST  APARTMENT  HOUSES 


THE  FIRST  APARTMENT  HOUSES 


335 


336 THE  FIRST  APARTMENT  HOUSES 

What  were  the  First  Apartment  Houses  in  this  Country? 

A  great  many  years  ago,  long  before  the  white  men  came  to  America,  there 
was  a  race  of  Indians  called  "cliff-dwellers,"  because  they  built  their  dwelling  places 
far  up  on  the  sides  of  steep  cliffs.  They  probably  made  their  homes  so  hard  to 
reach  in  order  that  they  might  be  safe  from  visits  of  their  enemies.  While  many 
of  their  homes  were  small  single-family  houses,  there  were  also  a  number  of  large 
two  and  three-story  dwellings  with  many  rooms  in  which  different  families  lived. 

Some  of  these  cliff  dwellings  may  still  be  seen  in  the  valleys  of  the  Rio  Grande 
and  the  Rio  Colorado  and  its  tributaries.  Close  examination  shows  that  many  of 
them  were  very  skilfully  built,  every  advantage  being  taken  of  the  natural  rock 
formations,  and  the  stones  being  dressed  and  laid  in  clay  mortar,  very  much  as  the 
bricklayer  does  his  work  on  an  up-to-date  apartment  house  today.  The  outsides 
of  the  buildings  somewhat  resembled  the  cement  houses  which  have  been  put  up 
in  later  days,  a  coat  of  clay  being  spread  on  the  outside  walls  and  carefully  smoothed 
off.  Oftentimes  the  inner  walls  were  plastered  too. 

Many  relics  of  the  inhabitants  have  been  found  in  these  cliff  dwellings,  although 
we  cannot  tell  how  they  lived,  for  the  region  is  now  rainless  and  therefore  destitute 
of  food  plants.  Conditions  must  have  been  different  then  and  the  ground  less  barren. 

Why  do  We  Call  32°  Above  Zero  "Freezing"? 

We  know  that  freezing  is  the  transformation  of  a  liquid  into  solid  under  the 
influence  of  cold.  Each  liquid  always  solidifies  at  some  fixed  temperature,  which 
is  called  its  freezing  point,  and  the  solid  melts  again  at  the  same  temperature.  Thus 
the  freezing  point  and  the  melting  point,  or  point  of  fusion,  are  the  same,  and  the 
point  is  always  the  same  for  the  same  substance. 

Consequently  the  freezing  point  of  water,  or  the  melting  point  of  ice  (32°  F.), 
is  taken  for  one  of  the  fixed  points  in  thermometry.  The  freezing  point  of  mercury 
is  39°  below  zero,  of  sulphuric  ether  46°  below  zero,  of  alcohol  203°  below  zero  F. 

How  is  Fresco  Painting  Done? 

In  producing  fresco  paintings,  a  finished  drawing  on  paper,  called  a  cartoon, 
exactly  the  size  of  the  intended  picture,  is  first  made,  to  serve  as  a  model. 

The  artist  then  has  a  limited  portion  of  the  wall  covered  over  with  a  fine  sort 
of  plaster,  and  upon  this  he  traces  from  his  cartoon  the  part  of  the  design  suited  for 
the  space.  As  it  is  necessary  to  the  success  and  permanency  of  his  work  that  the 
colors  should  be  applied  while  the  plaster  is  yet  damp,  no  more  of  the  surface  is 
plastered  at  one  time  than  what  the  artist  can  finish  in  one  day.  A  portion  of  the 
picture  once  commenced,  needs  to  be  completely  finished  before  leaving  it,  as  fresco 
does  not  admit  of  retouching  after  the  plaster  has  become  dry.  On  completing  a 
day's  work,  any  unpainted  part  of  the  plaster  is  removed,  cutting  it  neatly  along 
the  outline  of  a  figure  or  other  definite  form,  so  that  the  joining  of  the  plaster  for 
the  next  day's  work  may  be  concealed. 

The  art  is  very  ancient,  remains  of  it  being  found  in  India,  Egypt,  Mexico,  etc. 
Examples  of  Roman  frescoes  are  found  in  Pompeii  and  other  places.  After  the 
beginning  of  the  fifteenth  century  fresco  painting  became  the  favorite  process  of  the 
greatest  Italian  masters,  and  many  of  then-  noblest  pictorial  efforts  are  frescoes  on 
the  walls  of  palaces  and  churches. 

Some  ancient  wall  paintings  are  executed  in  what  is  called  "Fresco  Secco," 
which  is  distinguished  from  true  fresco  by  being  executed  on  dry  plaster,  which  is 
moistened  with  lime  water  before  the  colors  are  applied. 

Fresco  painting  has  in  recent  years  again  been  revived,  and  works  of  this  Jdnd 
have  been  executed  in  the  British  Houses  of  Parliament  and  other  public  and  private 
buildings,  more  especially  in  Germany. 


The  Story  of  a  Piece  of  Chewing  Gum* 

The  original  "chewing  gum"  was  spruce  gum,  the  exudation  of  the  cut  branches 
of  the  spruce  or  fir  tree.  Later,  pure  white  paraffin  wax,  variously  flavored,  took  its 
place,  but  only  in  its  turn  to  give  way  to  the  "  chicle  "  now  almost  exclusively  employed. 

Though  its  employment  in  the  manufacture  of  chewing  gum  is  of  comparatively 
recent  date,  chicle  was  used  by  the  Indian/3  prior  to  the  days  of  Columbus  as  a  means 
of  quenching  their  thirst.  It  was  first  commercially  imported  as  a  substitute  for 
rubber,  but  its  peculiar  suitability  for  chewing  gum  has  resulted  in  the  entire  product 
being  consumed  by  that  industry.  In  1885  the  United  States  imported  929,959 
pounds  of  chicle.  The  growth  of  the  chewing  gum  industry  is  shown  by  the  impor- 
tation of  nearly  5,500,000  pounds  for  the  year  ending  with  June  30,  1910. 

The  trees  are  "tapped"  during  the  rainy  season.  The  sap,  or  juice,  as  it  exudes 
has  the  appearance  of  milk,  but  gradually  changes  to  a  yellow  color  and  is  about 
the  thickness  of  treacle.  The  tree  drains  rapidly,  the  full  supply  of  "milk"  being 
generally  obtained  within  a  few  hours,  but  an  interval  of  several  years  usually  elapses 
before  it  will  yield  a  fresh  supply.  The  milk  differs  from  the  juice  obtained  fron? 
the  sugar  maple,  for  example,  in  that  it  is  not  the  life  sap  of  the  tree,  and  the  flow 
varies  greatly,  some  trees  which  show  full  life  yielding  much  less  than  apparently 
poorer  specimens.  "Crude  chicle"  is  obtained  by  simple  boiling  and  evaporation 
of  the  milk,  accompanied  by  frequent  kneading.  The  product,  as  pressed  in  rough 
molds,  is  of  a  light  gray  color. 

The  bulk  of  the  crude  chicle  manufactured  is  shipped  in  blocks  to  Canada,  where 
it  is  further  evaporated  and  carefully  refined  prior  to  importation  into  the  United 
States.  When  the  chicle  arrives  at  one  of  the  chewing-gum  factories  it  is  immediately 
turned  over  to  the  grinding  department.  It  comes  from  Mexico  in  cakes,  varying 
in  size  from  twelve-  to  eighteen-inch  cubes;  these  are  a  putty  color,  but  in  compo- 
sition chicle  is  porous  and  brittle,  particularly  after  it  is  thoroughly  dried.  In  the 
cubical  form  it  is  said  to  contain  from  twenty-five  to  thirty  per  cent  moisture.  After 
it  is  ground  and  dried  it  is  practically  free  of  moisture,  but  one  of  the  most  difficult 
problems  which  the  manufacturer  faces  is  to  thoroughly  dry  chicle  before  he  pro- 
ceeds to  treat  it  for  its  introduction  as  the  base  of  chewing  gum. 

The  cubes  are  broken  by  a  large  steam  hammer  into  irregular-shaped  pieces 
weighing  from  a  few  ounces  to  a  pound.  These  chunks  are  then  run  through  grinding 
machines,  which  reduce  the  chicle  to  a  coarse  meal.  Sometimes  this  breaking  and 
grinding  is  done  in  Mexico,  but  the  duty  on  ground  dried  chicle  is  five  cents  per 
pound  more  than'upon  cube  chicle. 

Chicle  meal  is  dried  upon  frames  in  a  special  drying  room,  which  is  kept  at  a 
temperature  of  80°  F.  An  electric  blower  exhausts  all  of  the  moisture  from  the  air. 
The  pure  meal  is  then  transformed  into  a  thick  syrup  under  intense  heat  and  passed 
through  a  filtering  machine,  one  of  the  latest  and  most  expensive  pieces  of  machinery 
employed  in  the  entire  manufacture  of  chewing  gum.  This  machine  has  practically 
solved  the  perplexing  problem  of  separating  impurities  and  foreign  substances  from 
chicle.  Before  the  filterer  was  invented  it  was  almost  impossible  for  the  manufacturer 
of  chewing  gum  to  produce  gum  entirely  free  from  particles  of  grit. 

During  the  process  of  filtration  the  chicle  is  also  sterilized,  and  comes  from  the 
machine  as  pure  as  distilled  water. 

It  is  next  passed  to  the  cooking  department  and  placed  in  huge  steam-jacketed 
kettles,  which  revolve  continually  and  thus  keep  the  chicle  from  scorching.  While 

*  Illustrations  by  courtesy  of  the  Common  Sense  Gum  Co.     Story  by  courtesy  of  the  American  Chicle  Co.  and  the 
Common  Sense  Gum  Co. 

22  (337) 


338       THE  STORY  OP  A  PIECE  OF  CHEWING  GUM 


THE  STORY  OF  A  PIECE  OF  CHEWING  GUM       339 


340       THE  STORY  OF  A  PIECE  OF  CHEWING  GUM 


THE  STORY  OF  A  PIECE  OF  CHEWING  GUM       341 


S42       THE  STORY  OF  A  PIECE  OF  CHEWING  GUM 

it  is  being  cooked  in  these  large  kettles  sugar  is  added,  and  as  soon  as  the  gum  is  done 
it  is  placed  in  a  kneading  machine.  It  is  now  about  the  consistency  of  bread  or 
cake  dough,  and  after  being  kneaded  and  cooled,  flavor  is  added. 

Peppermint,  spearmint  and  other  oils  'used  are  triply  distilled  and  absolutely 
free  of  all  impurities.  The  orange  oil  comes  from  Messina  and  is  always  the  product 
of  the  very  latest  orange  crop. 

From  the  kneading  machine  it  reaches  a  sizing  table,  to  which  are  attached 
heavy  rollers  for  reducing  the  mass  of  gum  to  a  strip  about  a  quarter  of  an  inch  in 
thickness  and  twelve  inches  wide. 

At  this  stage  it  will  be  seen  the  gum  begins  to  take  on  a  ribbon  shape.  As  it 
comes  from  the  first  series  of  rollers,  it  is  cut  into  short  lengths  sprinkled  with  powdered 
sugar,  and  these  short  lengths  are  passed  in  sticks  about  two  feet  high  on  to  a  second 
series  of  rollers.  Under  the  second  rollers  each  short  length  of  gum  is  once  more 
reduced  in  thickness  and  extended  in  length. 

The  surfaces  of  the  second  rollers  contain  knives  running  lengthwise  and  around. 
These  knives  partially  cut  the  gum  to  its  final  size.  The  thin  sheets  are  then  sent 
to  another  drying  room.  They  remain  in  this  room  from  twelve  to  forty-eight  hours, 
according  to  the  season  of  the  year,  and  are  then  ready  for  the  wrapping  machines. 

Machines  have  also  been  invented  which  stamp  out  little  nuggets  of  gum.  To 
be  finished  these  pieces  are  sent  to  a  long  room  containing  a  line  of  twelve  large  white 
kettles,  each  on  a  separate  base.  It  is  these  machines  which  coat  the  nuggets  with  snowy 
sugar.  The  kettles  revolve  until  a  sufficient  coating  of  the  liquid  sugar  has  adhered. 

The  chewing  gum  wrapping  machine  is  considered  by  machinery  builders  to 
be  one  of  the  most  ingenious  automatic  manufacturing  machines  in  use.  It  is  about 
the  size  of  an  ordinary  typewriter  desk  and  is  operated  by  one  girl.  She  receives 
the  thin  sheet  of  partially  cut  gum  from  the  last  drying  room.  The  machine  operator 
drops  the  slabs  of  gum  into  a  feeding  chute.  Each  slab  is  here  automatically  wrapped 
in  wax  and  silver-foil  papers.  These  papers  are  fed  from  rolls,  as  printing  paper  is 
fed  to  a  newspaper  press. 

As  the  slabs  are  wrapped  they  slide  into  a  pocket.  When  five  of  them  are  finished, 
two  steel  fingers  remove  them  and  put  on  the  final  outside  wrapper.  The  complete, 
wrapped  packages  of  five  slabs  slide  along  a  little  runway  into  boxes. 

The  same  girl  who  feeds  the  gum  into  the  wrapping  machine  closes  the  lids  of 
the  boxes  and  places  them  on  a  packing  table  by  her  side.  When  the  packing  table 
is  filled  with  boxes  a  boy  removes  it  to  the  shipping  room,  where  it  is  crated  and 
forwarded  to  the  wholesale  dealers. 


Where  did  the  Ferris  Wheel  get  Its  Name? 

The  Ferris  wheel  was  named  after  its  builder,  George  W.  Ferris,  an  able  engineer, 
now  dead. 

The  original  Ferris  wheel  was  exhibited  at  the  Chicago  World's  Fair.  It  was  a 
remarkable  engineering  feature. 

Its  diameter  was  270  feet  and  its  circumference  825  feet.  Its  highest  point  was 
280  feet.  The  axle  was  a  steel  bar,  45  feet  long  and  32  inches  thick.  Fastened  to 
each  of  the  twin  wheels  was  a  steel  hub  16  feet  in  diameter.  The  two  towers  at  the 
axis  supporting  the  wheel  were  140  feet  high,  and  the  motive  power  was  secured 
from  a  1,000  horse-power  steam  engine  under  the  wheel. 

The  thirty-six  cars  on  the  wheel  each  comfortably  seated  forty  persons.  The 
wheel  and  passengers  weighed  12,000  tons. 

By  the  Ferris  wheel  the  almost  indefinite  application  of  the  tension  spoke  to 
wheels  of  large  dimensions  has  been  vindicated,  the  expense  being  far  smaller  than 
that  of  the  stiff1  spoke. 


KEEPING  RAILROAD  RAILS  FROM  BREAKING       343 


I 

fcJD 


344       KEEPING  RAILROAD  RAILS  FROM  BREAKING 

What  is  Done  to  Keep  Railroad  Rails  from  Breaking? 

The  breaking  of  rails  has  been  the  cause  of  much  attention  on  the  part  of  rail- 
road and  steel  engineering  experts  ever  since  the  tendency  toward  the  construction 
of  heavy  locomotives  and  greater  train  loads  became  evident. 

The  report  of  the  Interstate  Commerce  Commission  for  1915  gave  broken  rails 
as  the  cause  of  3,345  accidents,  in  which  205  people  were  killed  and  7,341  were 
injured,  with  a  property  loss  of  $3,967,188.  A  steel  man  is  authority  for  the  state- 
ment that  one  cold  winter  day  in  1913,  a  single  locomotive,  making  excessive  speed, 
broke  about  a  hundred  rails  in  the  distance  of  a  mile  on  one  of  the  leading  railroad 
systems. 

Both  steel  and  railroad  men  were,  therefore,  much  interested  in  the  announce- 
ment made  by  the  New  York  Central  Railroad,  in  August,  1916,  to  the  effect  that 
the  road's  staff  of  specialists  had  discovered  the  cause  and  remedy  for  the  hidden 
flaws  in  steel  rails.  It  was  said  that  no  rails  produced  under  the  specifications 
provided  by  them  had  yet  developed  any  fissures. 

The  process  by  which  those  rails  were  prevented  from  developing  fissures  con- 
sisted mainly  of  rolling  them  from  reheated  blooms,  and  although  that  method  is 
said  to  have  been  used  in  a  number  of  rail  mills  for  many  years,  no  mention  had 
previously  been  recorded  of  the  prevention  of  breakage  in  that  way.  The  experi- 
ments are,  therefore,  sure  to  be  watched  with  a  great  deal  of  interest,  and  it  is 
probable  that  fewer  accidents  will  occur  from  broken  rails  in  the  near  future. 

The  technical  man  will  be  interested  in  an  outline  printed  in  the  Iron  Age,  which 
said:  "Induced  interior  transverse  fissures  in  basic  open-hearth  rails  are  due  in  part 
to  an  occasional  hot  rail  being  cooled  so  rapidly  by  the  rolls  or  so  chilled  by  the  gusts 
of  air  before  recalescence  on  the  hot  beds  as  to  cause  a  log  of  some  of  the  transforma- 
tions of  the  metal  in  the  interior  of  the  rail  head.  Induced  interior  transverse 
fissures  can  only  develop  in  the  track  from  the  effects  of  preceding  causes,  either  of 
which  is  no  longer  a  mystery." 

The  report  of  the  railroad  experts  also  laid  stress  on  the  theory  that  "gagging" 
rails — subjecting  them  to  blows  for  the  purpose  of  straightening  them — was  also 
likely  to  cause  faults  by  injuring  the  metal. 

How  does  a  "  Master  Clock  "  Control  Others  by  Electricity? 

With  the  aid  of  electric  currents,  one  clock  can  be  made  to  control  other  clocks, 
so  as  to  make  them  keep  accurate  time. 

By  means  of  this  method  one  high-class  clock,  usually  in  an  astronomical 
observatory,  compels  a  number  of  other  clocks  at  considerable  distances  to  keep 
time  with  it. 

The  clocks  thus  controlled  ought  to  be  so  regulated  that  if  left  to  themselves 
they  would  always  gain  a  little,  but  not  more  than  a  few  minutes  per  day. 

The  pendulum  of  the  controlling  clock,  in  swinging  to  either  side,  makes  a  brief 
contact,  which  completes  the  circuit  of  a  galvanic  battery,  and  thus  sends  a  current 
to  the  controlled  clock.  The  currents  pass  through  a  coil  in  the  bob  of  the  pendulum 
of  the  controlled  clock,  and  the  action  between  these  currents  and  a  pair  of  fixed 
magnets  urges  the  pendulum  to  one  side  and  to  the  other  alternately.  The  effect 
is  that,  though  the  controlled  clock  may  permanently  continue  to  be  a  fraction  of 
a  second  in  advance  of  the  controlling  clock,  it  can  never  be  so  much  as  half  a  second 
in  advance. 

An  electrically  controlled  clock  usually  contains  a  small  magnetic  needle,  which 
shows  from  which  direction  the  currents  are  coming.  The  arrangements  are  usually 
such  that  at  every  sixtieth  second  no  current  is  sent,  and  the  needle  stands  still. 
Any  small  error  is  thus  at  once  detected. 


The  Story  of  the  Calculating  Machine 

How  did  Men  Learn  to  Count? 

Historians  tell  us  that  man  was  able  to  count  long  before  he  was  able  to  write. 
Of  course,  he  could  not  count  very  far,  but  it  was  enough  for  his  needs  at  that  time. 
He  had  no  money  and  very  few  possessions  of  any  kind,  so  that  he  did  not  have  much 
occasion  to  use  arithmetic. 

It  was  fairly  simple  for  prehistoric  men  to  distinguish  one  from  two,  and  to 
distinguish  a  few  from  a  great  number,  but  it  was  more  difficult  for  him  to  learn  to 
think  of  a  definite  number  of  objects  between  these  extremes.  Those  who  have 
studied  the  evolution  of  figures  say  that  man  found  it  hard  to  think  of  a  number  of 
objects  without  using  a  mark  or  a  finger  or  something  to  stand  for  each  object.  That 
is  how  the  first  method  of  counting  came  into  use. 

Because  man  had  ten  fingers  and  thumbs,  he  learned  to  count  in  tens.  When  he 
had  counted  ten,  he  could  make  a  mark  to  remind  him  of  the  fact,  and  then  count 
them  over  again.  Some  of  the  early  races  learned  to  designate  units  from  tens  and 
tens  from  hundreds  by  working  their  fingers  in  various  ways.  Other  peoples  also 
made  use  of  their  toes  in  counting,  so  that  they  could  count  up  to  twenty  without 
getting  bothered. 

Cantor,  the  historian,  tells  of  a  South  African  tribe  which  employed  an  unusual 
system  of  finger  counting.  Three  men  sat  together  facing  a  fourth  who  did  the 
counting.  Each  of  the  three  held  up  his  fingers  for  the  fourth  man  to  count.  The 
first  man's  ten  fingers  and  thumbs  represented  units;  the  second  man  represented 
tens,  and  the  third  hundreds.  By  this  means,  it  was  possible  to  count  up  to  999. 

Who  Invented  the  First  Adding  Machine? 

Early  cuneiform  inscriptions,  made  about  2200  B.  C.,  show  that  the  Babylonians 
had  developed  a  fairly  extensive  system  of  figuring.  This  was  in  the  days  of  the 
patriarch  Abraham.  When  men's  minds  were  overtaxed  with  the  strain  of  counting 
into  the  hundreds  and  thousands,  the  Babylonians  invented  the  first  adding  machine, 
a  "pebble  board,"  a  ruled  surface  on  which  pebbles  were  shifted  about  to  represent 
different  values. 

The  next  adding  and  calculating  machine  was  an  evolution  from  the  digits  of  the 
human  hand  and  is  known  as  the  abacus  in  China,  and  the  soroban  in  Japan. 

The  abacus  may  be  defined  as  an  arrangement  of  movable  beads  which  slip 
along  fixed  rods,  indicating  by  their  arrangement  some  definite  numerical  quantity. 
Its  most  familiar  form  is  in  a  boxlike  arrangement,  divided  longitudinally  by  a  narrow 
ridge  of  two  compartments,  one  of  which  is  roughly  some  three  times  larger  than 
the  other.  Cylindrical  rods  placed  at  equal  intervals  apart  pass  through  the  frame- 
work and  are  fixed  firmly  into  the  sides.  On  these  rods  the  counters  are  beaded. 
Each  counter  slides  along  the  rod  easily  and  on  each  rod  there  are  six  tamas  or  beads. 
Five  of  these  slide  on  the  longest  segment  of  the  rod  and  the  remaining  one  on  the 
shorter.  Addition,  subtraction,  multiplication,  division,  and  even  square  and 
cube  root  can  be  performed  on  the  abacus,  and  in  the  hands  of  a  skilled  operator 
considerable  speed  can  be  obtained. 

The  Oriental  tradesman  does  not  deign  to  perplex  himself  by  &  process  of  mental 
arithmetic;  he  seizes  his  abacus,  prepares  it  by  a  tilt,  makes  a  few  rapid,  clicking 
movements  and  his  calculations  are  completed.  We  always  look  with  some  slight 

(345) 


346      THE  STORY  OF  THE  CALCULATING  MACHINE 


FINGER  COUNTING  WAS  COMMON  AMONG  EARLIER  PEOPLES,  AND  WAS  BROUGHT  TO  A 
FAIR  DEGREE  OF  EFFICIENCY  BY  SOUTH  AFRICANS 

Courtesy  of  the  Burroughs  Adding  Machine  Company. 


THE  STORY  OF  THE  CALCULATING  MACHINE     347 


THE  "ABACUS"  WAS  ONE  OF  THE  EARLIEST  AIDS  TO  CALCULATION 

It  is  still  used  extensively  in  China,  and  occasionally  will  be  found  in  Chinese 
laundries  in  the  United  States. 

Courtesy  of  the  Burroughs  Adding  Machine  Company. 


348      THE  STORY  OF  THE  CALCULATING  MACHINE 


contempt  upon  this  method  of  calculation,  but  a  little  experience  and  investigation 
would  tend  to  transform  this  contempt  into  admiration,  for  it  may  be  safely  asserted 
that  even  the  simplest  of  all  arithmetical  operations,  the  abacus,  possesses  distinctive 
advantages  over  the  mental  or  figuring  process.  In  competition  in  simple  addition 
between  a  " lightning  calculator"  and  an  ordinary  Japanese  small  tradesman,  the 
Japanese  would  easily  win  the  contest. 

Blaise  Pascal,  the  wonderful  Frenchman,  who  discovered  the  theorem  in  conic 
sections,  or  Pascal's  hexogram,  was  not  only  one  of  the  foremost  mathematicians  of 
his  day  but  also  excelled  in  mechanics;  when  he  was  nineteen  years  old  he  produced 
the  first  machine  for  the  carrying  of  tens  and  the  first  arithmetical  machine,  as  we 
know  it,  was  invented  by  him  about  1641.  This  was  the  first  calculating  machine 
made  with  dials.  The  same  principle,  that  of  using  discs  with  figures  on  their 

peripheries,  is  employed  in  present- 
day  calculating  machines.  Among 
these  are  numbering  machines  of 
all  kinds,  speedometers,  cyclometers 
and  counters  used  on  printing 
presses. 


A  MODERN  BOOKKEEPING  MACHINE,  USED  FOR 
LEDGER  POSTING  AND  STATEMENT  MAKING 

It  has  seventeen  "banks"  or  rows  of  keys,  is 
electrically  operated,  and  automatically  adds, 
subtracts,  and  computes  balances. 

Courtesy  of  the  Bui  roughs  Adding  Machine  Company. 


Who  Discovered  the   Slide  Rule 
Principle? 

It  was  early  in  the  seventeenth 
century  that  Napier,  a  native  of 
Naples,  invented  the  first  actual 
mechanical  means  of  calculating.  He 
arranged  strips  of  bone,  on  which 
were  figures,  so  that  they  could  be 
brought  into  various  fixed  combina- 
tions. The  instrument  was  called 
" Napier's  rod"  or  Napier's  bones." 
It  was  the  beginning  of  the  slide  rule, 
which  has  been  found  of  invaluable 
aid  to  accountants  and  engineers. 

One  trouble  with  all  these  con- 
trivances was  that,  although  they 
aided  man  to  figure,  they  offered 
no  means  of  making  a  record  of 
the  work.  The  man  who  used  these  machines  had  no  way  of  checking  his  work  to 
know  if  it  was  right  unless  he  did  it  all  over  again. 

The  first  machine  to  perform  multiplication  by  means  of  successive  additions  was 
invented  by  Leibnitz  in  the  year  1671  and  completed  in  1694.  It  employed  the 
principle  of  the  ''stepped  reckoner.'''  This  model  was  kept  first  at  Gottingen  and 
afterward  at  Hanover,  but  it  did  not  act  efficiently,  as  the  gears  were  not  cut  with 
sufficient  accuracy.  This  was  long  before  the  days  of  accurate  machine  tools. 

The  first  satisfactory  calculating  machine  of  this  nature  was  that  of  C.  X. 
Thomas,  which  was  brought  out  about  1820.  It  is  usually  called  the  Thomas 
de  Colmar  Arithmometer.  This  Thomas  type  of  machine,  which  is  commonly  known 
as  the  beveled  gear  type,  is  still  in  use  today  in  modern  business. 

The  "  Difference  Engine." 

In  the  year  1822  a  very  ambitious  project  was  conceived  by  Charles  Babbage. 
He  commenced  to  construct  an  automatic  calculating  machine,  which  he  called  a 


THE   STORY  OF  THE  CALCULATING  MACHINE      349 


"difference  engine."  The  work  was  continued  during  the  following  twenty  years, 
the  English  government  contributing  about  $85,000  to  defray  its  cost.  Babbage 
himself  spent  a  further  sum  of  about  $30,000.  At  the  end  of  that  time  the  construc- 
tion of  the  engine,  though  nearly  finished,  was  unfortunately  abandoned,  owing  to 
some  misunderstanding  with  the  government.  A  portion  of  this  engine  is  exhibited 
in  South  Kensington  Museum,  London,  along  with  other  examples  of  Babbage's 
work.  If  the  engine  had  been  finished  it  would  have  contained  seven  columns  of 
wheels,  twenty  wheels  in  each  col- 
umn, and  also  a  contrivance  for  ster- 
eotyping the  tables  calculated  by  it. 
It  was  intended  to  perform  the  most 
extended  calculations  required  in 
astronomy  and  navigation,  and  to 
stamp  a  record  of  its  work  into 
plates  of  copper  or  other  material. 

Babbage  began  to  design  his 
"analytical  engine"  in  1833  and  he 
put  together  a  small  portion  of  it 
shortly  before  his  death  in  1871. 
This  engine  was  to  be  capable  of 
evaluating  any  algebraic  formula. 
The  formula  it  is  desired  to  evaluate 
would  be  communicated  to  the 
engine  by  two  sets  of  perforated 
cards  similar  to  those  used  in  the 
Jacquard  loom.  These  cards  would 
cause  the  engine  automatically  to 
operate  on  the  numerical  data  placed 
in  it,  in  such  a  way  as  to  produce 
the  correct  result.  Notwithstanding 
its  simple  action,  its  structure  is  com- 
plicated by  a  large  amount  of  adding 
mechanism.  A  complete  set  of  add- 
ing wheels  with  carrying  gear  being 
required  for  the  tabular  number,  and 
every  order  of  difference  except  the 
highest  order. 

After  Babbage,  there  was  much 
experimenting  done  by  inventors  to 
produce  a  real  adding  and  listing 


CHARLES  BABBAGE'S  "ENGINE  OF  DIF- 
FERENCES" WAS  THE  FIRST  ADDING  MACHINE 
INVENTED  WHICH  WAS  DESIGNED  TO  PRINT 
A  RECORD  OF  ITS  WORK,  BUT  IT  WAS  NOT  A 
SUCCESS 

Courtesy  of  the  Burroughs  Adding  Machine  Company. 


machine.  Also  inspired  by  Bab- 
bage's work  Scheutz  of  Stockholm 
made  a  "difference  engine,"  which 
was  exhibited  in  England  in  1864, 
and  subsequently  acquired  for  Dudley  Observatory,  Albany,  N.  Y.  Scheutz's  engine 
had  mechanism  for  calculating  with  four  orders  of  differences  of  sixteen  figures  each. 
As  far  as  we  know  the  first  patent  in  this  country  issued  by  the  patent  office  for 
a  calculating  machine  was  to  0.  L.  Castle  of  Alton,  Illinois,  in  1850.  It  was  for  a 
ten-key  adding  machine  which  did  not  print  and  only  added  in  one  column. 

Work  on  Some  of  the  Present-Day  Models. 

Frank  S.  Baldwin,  a  construction  engineer,  living  in  the  United  States,  began 
to  work  on  calculating  machines  in  1870.     In  1874  he  received  a  patent  for  a  small 


350      THE  STORY  OF  THE  CALCULATING  MACHINE 


THE  MODERN  ADDING  MACHINE 

Courtesy  of  the  Monroe  Calculating  Machine  Company. 


hand  adding  machine.  In  1875  a  patent  was  granted  him  on  a  calculating  machine. 
This  machine  was  along  entirely  original  lines.  Mr.  Baldwin  did  not  even  know  of  the 
existence  of  the  Thomas  machine  at  that  time.  The  machine  had  a  number  of  impor- 
tant advantages  over  the  Thomas  system.  Scientists  were  very  much  interested  in 
the  invention  at  the  time,  and  the  John  Scott  medal  for  meritorious  inventions  was 

conferred  upon  Mr.  Baldwin  by 
the  Franklin  Institute.  The  only 
other  invention  being  honored 
in  that  year  (1875)  was  the 
George  Westinghouse  air  brake. 

This  calculating  machine, 
however,  seemed  to  be  too  much 
in  advance  of  the  times,  and  Mr. 
Baldwin  was  unable  to  interest 
capital  in  it.  He  was  very  success- 
ful in  his  business  as  construction 
engineer  and  continued  to  spend 
all  his  spare  time  and  money  in 
experimental  work.  He  brought 
out  a  number  of  models  at  later 
dates  with  important  improve- 
ments. 

In  the  early  eighties  one  of  Mr.  Baldwin's  1875  models  found  its  way  to  Europe 
into  the  hands  of  one  Ohdner,  a  Swede.  He  took  out  patents  in  all  European  coun- 
tries on  a  machine  that  did  not  vary  in  any  important  particular  from  Mr.  Baldwin's 
machine,  and  several  large  manufacturing  companies  in  Europe  took  it  up.  It  is  now 
appearing  under  ten  to  fifteen  different  names  in  Europe,  the  most  important  being 
"Brunsviga"  and  Triumphator  in 
Germany.  There  is  no  essential  dif- 
ference between  the  machines  they 
are  turning  out  today  and  Mr.  Bald- 
win's original  machine.  More  than 
50,000  machines  of  this  type  have 
been  sold  throughout  the  world. 

In  1883  a  young  man  who 
started  to  work  in  a  bank  in  Auburn, 
N.  Y.,  discovered  that  nine-tenths 
of  his  work  was  mechanical  addition. 
He  also  found  that  the  human  brain 
is  but  an  imperfect  tool,  incapable 
of  sustained  effort  without  accident. 
His  health  gave  way  under  the  strain, 
and  he  quit  the  bank  to  begin  work 
in  a  machine  shop  in  St.  Louis. 

This  was  William  S.  Burroughs. 
He  was  of  mechanical  turn  of  mind, 
with  an  intense  hobby  for  painful 
accuracy.  By  lamplight  at  home  he  worked  out  pencil  outlines  of  a  machine  which 


ONE  OF  THE  FIRST  SUCCESSFUL  ADDING 
AND  LISTING  MACHINES 

Courtesy  of  the  Burroughs  Adding  Machine  Company. 


would  write  figures  and  at  the  same  time  add  them.  It  required  the  most  painstak- 
ing work  for  him  to  make  a  machine  to  do  what  he  had  in  mind.  His  early  associates 
say  of  Burroughs  that  no  ordinary  materials  were  good  enough  for  his  creation.  His 
drawings  were  on  metal  plates  that  would  not  stretch  nor  shrink  by  the  fraction  of  a 
hair.  He  worked  with  hardened  tools  ground  to  a  point,  and  when  he  struck  a  center 
or  drew  a  line,  he  did  it  under  a  microscope. 


THE  STORY  OF  THE  CALCULATING  MACHINE     351 


In  1884  Burroughs  took  his  plans  to  a  St.  Louis  dry  goods  merchant,  who  thought 
so  well  of  the  idea  that  he  raised  $700  toward  forming  a  company.  The  young  man 
took  up  his  work  in  the  machine  shop  conducted  by  Joseph  Boyer. 

It  was  in  January,  1885,  that  he  applied  for  his  patent,  which  was  not  issued 
until  1887. 

His  mechanism  throughout  operated  on  the  pivotal  principle.  This  means  a 
minimum  of  friction,  therefore  the  least  wear  on  the  machine  and  the  least  exertion 
on  the  part  of  the  operator.  The  principle  elements  in  the  machine  remain  prac- 
tically unchanged  today,  a  fact  which  testifies  to  the  excellence  of  the  inventor's  work. 

Experimenting  on  the  machine  swallowed  a  great  deal  of  capital,  and  the  stock- 
holders of  the  company  he  had  formed  became  impatient,  Burroughs  objected 


THE  BOYER  MACHINE  SHOP,  ST.  Louis,  WHERE  ONE  OP  THE  FIRST  SUCCESSFUL 
ADDING  AND  LISTING  MACHINES  WAS  BORN 

Courtesy  of  the  Burroughs  Adding  Machine  Company. 


strenuously,  for  he  did  not  wish  to  market  the  machine  until  he  was  convinced  that 
it  was  perfect,  but  he  finally  agreed  to  manufacture  fifty  machines. 

In  his  public  demonstrations,  he  could  do  wonders  with  the  machine.  The 
public  was  skeptical,  however,  and  some  averred  that  he  was  a  "  lightning  calcu- 
lator" who  did  sums  in  his  head  and  printed  them  on  the  machine.  The  first 
machines  worked  all  right  for  the  inventor,  but  inexperienced  operators  obtained 
surprising  results  through  punching  the  keys  and  jerking  the  crank. 

To  meet  this  trouble  and  make  the  machines  ''fool  proof,"  he  invented  the 
"automatic  control"  in  1890.  This  was  a  governor,  called  the  "dash  pot" — a  small 
cylinder  partially  filled  with  oil,  and  in  which  was.  a  plunger.  This,  in  connection 
with  an  ingenious  management  of  springs,  absorbed  the  shocks  and  governed  the 


352      THE  STORY  OF  THE  CALCULATING  MACHINE 

machine  so  that  no  matter  what  was  done  to  it,  it  would  operate  only  at  a  certain 
speed.  It  is  this  same  shock-absorbing  device  which  is  used  to  catch  the  recoil  on  the 
immense  siege  guns  used  in  modern  warfare. 

Other  improvements  were  made,  and  in  1891  the  first  hundred  machines  that 
were  really  marketable  were  manufactured.  While  still  flushed  with  his  success, 
Burroughs  thought  of  the  first  fifty  machines  which  had  proved  such  a  disappoint- 


"THERE'S  AN  END  TO  MY  TROUBLES,"  SAID  WILLIAM  SEWARD  BURROUGHS  AS  HE 
THREW  INTO  THE  STREET  THE  FIRST  FIFTY  ADDING  MACHINES  HE  HAD  MADE 

He  wished  nothing  to  remain  to  remind  him  of  this  early  failure. 
Courtesy  of  the  Burroughs  Adding  Machine  Company. 

ment.  These  machines  still  remained  in  a  dusty  storeroom  to  mock  him.  Deter- 
mined to  get  them  out  of  his  sight  and  memory,  he  seized  them  and  threw  them 
one  by  one  from  a  window  to  the  pavement  below. 

When  he  had  disposed  of  the  last  one,  he  called  Mr.  Boyer  to  see  the  ruin. 
"There,"  he  exclaimed,  "I  have  ended  the  last  of  my  troubles." 

The  first  machines  were  called  "Registering  Accountants,"  and  "Arithmom- 
eters." Burroughs  lived  to  see  the  fulfilment  of  his  dreams  and  the  machine  a 


THE  STORY  OF  THE  CALCULATING  MACHINE     353 

commercial  success.  He  died  September  14,  1898,  at  his  country  home  in  Citronelle, 
Alabama,  a  victim  of  tuberculosis. 

There  were  at  that  time  8,000  banks  in  the  country,  and  it  was  Burroughs'  idea 
that  as  soon  as  these  were  supplied  the  market  for  adding  machines  would  be 
exnausied.  Today,  there  are  more  than  200,000  adding  machines  of  that  one 
make  in  use. 

The  need  for  an  all-around  office  assistant  that  could  multiply,  divide,  subtract 
as  easily  as  it  could  add,  was  an  idea  nourished  in  the  mind  and  thought  of  a  young 
student  of  the  University  of  Michigan. 

After  graduation,  Jay  R.  Monroe  turned  his  attention  to  clerical  and  commercial 


THE  LATEST  MODEL  CALCULATING  MACHINE 

Courtesy  of  the  Monroe  Calculating  Machine  Company. 


lines.  He  became  acquainted  with  all  the  different  types  of  adding  and  so-called 
calculating  machines.  He  saw  their  limitations  and  restrictions.  He  saw  the  need 
for  versatility — for  more  simplicity  in  operation — for  getting  away  from  arbitrary 
rules — for  release  from  the  sapping  mental  tax. 

So  in  1911  Monroe  met  Mr.  Baldwin.  Mr.  Monroe  realized  the  possibilities  of 
Mr.  Baldwin's  idea.  Together  they  set  about  designing  the  machine  to  make  it  as 
nearly  perfect  as  possible  in  adaptation  to  the  needs  of  modern  business. 

They  produced  a  machine  in  which  the  best  of  the  European  features  are  said 
to  be  combined  with  the  operating  ease  and  simplicity  of  American-made  machines, 


354      THE  STORY  OF  THE  CALCULATING  MACHINE 


Provision  is  made  for  the  correction  of  errors,  and  operation  is  in  two  directions,  for- 
ward for  addition  and  multiplication,  and  backward  for  subtraction  and  division. 
The  latest  model  is  a  desk  machine,  occupying  less  than  one  square  foot  of  space  and 
weighing  about  twenty-six  pounds. 

One  of  the  latest  developments  cf  the  adding  machine  is  a  type  that  will  post 


THE  "DUODECILLION" — THE  LARGEST  CAPACITY  ADDING  MACHINE  IN  THE  WORLD — HAS 
FORTY  Rows  OP  KEYS  AND  WILL  ADD  TO  WITHIN  A  UNIT  OF  TEN  DUODECILLIONS 

To  appreciate  this  prodigious  figure,  imagine  that  a  marvelous  high-speed  flying  machine 
were  invented  that  would  go  to  the  sun  and  back  in  a  day.     If  you  made  this  186,000,000-mile 
trip  every  day,  it  would  take  you  just  14,729,700,000,000,000,000,000,000,000  years  to  travel 
a  duodecillion  miles. 
Courisey  of  the  Burroughs  Adding  Machine  Company, 


ledgers  and  statements, 
keeping  of  its  drudgery. 


This  machine  is  said  to  be  the  final  step  in  relieving  book- 


How  Big  is  the  Largest  Adding  Machine  in  the  World? 

The  largest  adding  machine  ever  made  was  produced  in  1915  and  has  a  capacity 
of  forty  columns,  or  within  one  unit  of  ten  duodecillions.  This  is  a  number  too  pro- 
digious for  the  mind  of  man  to  grasp.  This  machine  was  exhibited  at  the  Panama 
Expositions  in  1915. 

To  get  an  idea  of  the  capacity  of  this  machine,  suppose  that  your  income  is 
$1,000,000  a  second.  At  this  rate  for  twenty-four  hours  a  day,  with  no  stops  for 
eating  or  sleeping,  it  would  take  you  352,331,022,041,828,731,333,333,333,  years  to 


THE  STORY  OF  THE  CALCULATING  MACHINE      355 


accumulate  a  duodecillion  dollars.    All  the  hairs  on  the  heads  of  all  human  beings, 
which  are  supposed  to  be  numberless,  are  only  a  small  fraction  of  a  duodecillion. 

This  machine  has  a  practical  use  in  adding  several  sums  simultaneously,  and 
takes  the  place  of  from  ten  to  a  dozen  smaller  machines. 

Adding  machines  are  made  that  figure  in  English  pence,  shillings  and  pounds; 
in  Japanese  yen,  and  in  the  monetary  system  of  most  civilized  countries.  They  will 
change  inches  into  feet,  pounds  into  bushels,  and  do  other  "stunts"  that  would  make 
the  average  schoolboy  envious  when  it  comes  to  arithmetic. 

The  most  complicated  problems  of  multiplication,  division  and  fractions  may 
be  handled  with  ease  on  these  machines.  They  have  taken  a  great  part  in  the  day's 
work  of  modern  business,  and  it  would  be  hard  to  imagine  how  the  world's  finance 
and  industry  could  be  handled  without  them.  Adding  and  calculating  machines 
have  become  almost  as  necessary  in 
modern  business  as  the  telephone  and 
the  typewriter. 

How  are  Adding  Machines  Used? 

Adding  machines  may  be  found 
at  work  in  all  kinds  of  business  places 
from  corner  groceries  to  department 
stores  and  manufacturing  plants.  In 
the  various  offices  and  plants  of  the 
Western  Electric  Company,  which  are 
scattered  through  the  country,  more 
than  1,600  machines  are  in  use.  Other 
big  users  are  railroads,  banks,  mail- 
order houses,  and  city,  state  and 
government  offices. 

The  Bank  of  France,  the  Bank 
of  England,  and  other  of  the  world's 
largest  financial  institutions  do  the 
burden  of  their  figure  work  on  adding 
machines  made  in  the  United  States. 
The  German  post-office  uses  more  than 
1,200  machines.  There  are  individual  American  banks,  like  the  Corn  Exchange 
National  Bank  of  New  York,  that  employ  as  many  as  150  adding  machines  in 
their  work. 

Some  surprising  uses  are  found  for  adding  machines.  One  is  used  in  a  Japanese 
boarding  house  in  California;  another  is  used  by  a  retired  Dayton  millionaire  to  count 
the  coupons  he  clips;  the  Rockefeller  Sanitary  Commission  uses  a  machine  in  fight- 
ing the  hook-worrn;  the  United  States  government  uses  thousands  in  making  census 
tabulations  and  in  other  ways.  Others  are  used  by  newsboys,  egg  farmers,  house- 
wives, undertakers,  dentists,  judges  in  automobile  races,  and  by  persons  in  a  thousand 
different  lines  of  business.  Without  adding  machines  the  public  would  be  obliged  to 
wait  for  days  for  the  results  of  most  elections. 

In  this  way,  the  idea  of  a  tired  bank  clerk  came  to  change  the  figuring  methods 
of  the  world. 


ONE  OF  THE  SMALLEST  ADDING  MACHINES 
is  ADAPTED  FOR  USE  BY  RETAIL  MERCHANTS 
AND  OTHERS  WHO  DO  NOT  ADD  FIGURES  OF 
MORE  THAif  FIVE  DIGITS 

Courtesy  of  the  Burroughs  Adding  Machine  Company. 


The  words  "Almighty  Dollar"  have  been  generally  adopted  since  Irving  first 
used  them  in  his  "Creole  Village,"  and  the  use  of  "lynching"  to  represent  mob  law 
and  the  action  of  mobs  has  become  common  oince  a  Virginia  farmer  by  that  name 
instituted  the  first  vigilance  committee  in  America. 


356 WHERE  DOES  ERMINE  COME  FROM 

Where  does  Ermine  Come  From? 

The  ermine  fur,  with  which  we  are  all  familiar,  is  furnished  by  the  stoat,  a  small 
animal  of  the  weasel  tribe.  It  is  found  over  both  temperate  Europe  and  North 
America,  but  is  common  only  in  the  north. 

Because  of  that  change  which  occurs  in  the  color  of  its  fur  at  different  seasons — 
by  far  most  marked  in  the  Arctic  regions — it  is  not  generally  known  that  the  ermine 

and  stoat  are  the  same.  In  whiter,  in  cold  countries 
or  severe  seasons,  the  fur  changes  from  a  reddish- 
brown  to  a  yellowish-white,  or  almost  pure  white, 
under  which  shade  the  animal  is  recognized  as  the 
ermine.  In  both  states  the  tip  of  the  tail  is  black. 
Like  many  other  species  of  this  genus,  the  ermine 
has  the  faculty  of  ejecting  a  fluid  of  a  musky  odor. 
Its  fur  is  short,  soft  and  silky;  the  best  skins 
being  brought  from  Russia,  Sweden  and  Norway  and 
Hudson  Bay  territories.  Its  fur  was  formerly  one 


ERMINE  (Mustela  Erminea) 


of  the  insignia  of  royalty,  and  is  still  used  by  judges. 
When  used  as  linings  of  cloaks  the  black  tuft  from 
the  tail  is  sewed  to  the  skin  at  irregular  distances. 


What  is  the  Principle  of  "  Foreign  Exchange  "? 

Exchange,  in  commerce,  is  a  transaction  by  which  the  debts  of  people  residing 
at  a  distance  are  canceled  by  a  draft  or  bill  of  exchange,  without  transfer  of  any 
actual  money. 

A  merchant  in  New  York  who  owes  $1,000  worth  of  goods  in  London,  gives  a 
bill  or  order  for  that  amount  which  can  be  negotiated  through  banking  agencies 
or  otherwise  against  similar  debts  owing  by  other  parties  in  London  who  have  pay- 
ments to  make  in  New  York.  This  obviates  the  expense  and  risk  of  transmitting 
money. 

The  process  of  liquidating  obligations  between  different  nations  is  carried  on  in 
the  same  way  by  an  exchange  of  foreign  bills.  When  all  the  accounts  of  one  country 
correspond  in  value  with  those  of  another,  the  exchange  between  the  countries  will 
be  at  par,  that  is,  the  sum  for  which  the  bill  is  drawn  in  the  one  country  will  be  the 
exact  value  of  it  in  the  other. 

Exchange  is  said  to  be  at  par  when,  for  instance,  a  bill  drawn  in  New  York  for 
the  payment  of  $1,000  in  London  can  be  purchased  there  for  $1,000.  If  it  can  be 
purchased  £or  less,  exchange  is  under  par  and  is  against  London.  If  the  purchaser 
is  obliged  to  give  more,  exchange  is  above  par  and  in  favor  of  London. 

Although  the  thousand  circumstances  which  incessantly  affect  the  state  of  debt 
and  credit  prevent  the  ordinary  course  of  exchange  from  being  almost  ever  precisely 
at  par,  its  fluctuations  are  confined  within  narrow  limits,  and  if  direct  exchange  is 
unfavorable  between  two  countries  this  can  often  be  obviated  by  the  interposition 
of  bills  drawn  on  other  countries  where  an  opposite  state  of  matters  prevails. 

What  do  We  Mean  by  "  The  Old  Moon  in  the  New  Moon's  Arms"? 

"Earth-shine/'  in  astronomy,  is  the  name  given  to  the  faint  light  visible  on 
the  part  of  the  moon  not  illuminated  by  the  sun,  due  to  the  illumination  of  that 
portion  by  the  light  which  the  earth  reflects  on  her.  It  is  most  conspicuous  when 
the  illuminated  part  of  the  disc  is  at  its  smallest,  as  soon  after  new  moon.  Thia 
phenomenon  is  popularly  described  as  "the  old  moon  in  the  new  moon's  arms." 


The  Story  in  a  Bowling  Alley 

From  the  " stone  age"  onward  the  probabilities  are  that  man  has  always  had 
some  kind  of  bowling  game. 

Bowling,  as  we  know  today,  is  an  indoor  adaptation  of,  and  an  improvement 
upon,  the  old  Dutch  game  of  "  nine-pins."  This  game  was  brought  from  Holland 
by  those  colonists  who  settled  Manhattan  Island  in  1623. 

Washington  Irving,  in  his  story,  "Rip  Van  Winkle,"  refers  to  the  old  Dutch 
fairy  tale,  that  the  rolling  thunder  on  the  mountain  tops  of  the  Catskill  was  the 
noise  made  by  the  rolling  balls  as  the  elfs  and  gnomes  engaged  in  their  favorite 
pastimes  of  bowling. 

That  little  section  of  New  York  City  known  as  Bowling  Green  is  the  original 
spot  which,  in  1732,  Peter  Bayard,  Peter  Jay  and  John  Chambers  leased  for  eleven 
years  and  enclosed  for  a  bowling  green. 

With  the  influx  of  German  immigrants,  who  brought  with  them  a  game  similar 
to  the  Dutch  game,  additional  popularity  was  given  to  the  sport. 

The  game  was  originally  played  on  the  bare  ground.    The  Germans  used  a  board 


LOOP  THE  LOOP  RETURN 

about  a  foot  wide  on  which  to  roll  the  ball,  and  then  improved  on  this  by  using  cohe- 
sive mineral  substances  solidly  packed  together.  At  an  early  date,  the  Dutch  had 
covered  the  alley  with  a  roof,  and  later  enclosed  it  in  a  rough  shed,  to  protect  it  and 
make  play  possible  in  any  kind  of  weather.  But,  great  as  these  improvements  were 
over  the  crudeness  of  previous  centuries,  they  are  not  worthy  of  comparison  with  a 
modern  bowling  academy. 

In  the  best  hard-wood  section  of  the  United  States,  one  of  the  large  bowling 
equipment  manufacturers  owns  about  thirty  thousand  acres  of  maple.  From  this 
raw  material  is  gathered  the  chief  stock  that  goes  into  bowling  alleys  and  the  pins. 

The  company  has  its  own  logging  crews  that  cut  the  timber  and  pile  it  on  flat 
cars,  whence  it  is  transported  over  a  private  railroad  until  it  arrives  at  the  company 
sawmills.  Here  the  raw  material  enters  upon  the  manufacturing  process. 

The  rough  stock-strips  for  the  alley  "bed,"  "leveling  strips,"  "return  chute," 
"post"  and  "kick-backs"  are  sawed  out  of  certain  of  the  logs.  They  are  then 
shipped  to  a  factory  where  they  are  seasoned,  being  kiln  dried.  The  stock  is  next 
cut  to  the  required  sizes. 

*  Illustrations  by  courtesy  of  The  Brunswlck-Balke-Collender  Co. 

(357) 


358 


THE  STORY  IN  A  BOWLING  ALLEY 


The  bed  stock  is  cut  into  strips,  planed  on  all  sides,  and  tongued  and  grooved 
on  the  widest  sides.  When  finished,  the  strips  measure  3x1  inch.  Part  of  the 
bed  stock,  however,  is  hard  pine,  shipped  from  the  Southern  states  in  the  rough  boards. 
This  is  finished  similar  to  the  maple  strips. 

The  " kick-backs"  are  the  two  partitions,  shaped  somewhat  like  a  ship's  rudder, 
which  form  the  two  pit  sides.  Each  consists  of  two  facings  of  the  best  maple  with 
a  core  of  hard  but  resilient  wood  in  the  middle.  They  are  built  in  this  way  to  make 
the  pins  that  fly  side-wise  spring  back  on  the  bed  and  knock  down  other  standing 
pins,  and  also  to  withstand  the  exceedingly  rough  usage  to  which  they  are  subject 
by  the  flying  pins  and  rolling  balls. 

The  cushion  forms  the  rear  end  of  the  pit.  The  frame  is  stoutly  constructed, 
and  the  face  thickly  upholstered  with  scrap  leather  and  a  heavy  but  pliable  covering. 
It  swings  on  hinges  which  suspend  it  from  the  cross  bar,  running  from  each  of  the 
kick-backs  across  the  pit  end  at  the  top.  The  cushion  diminishes  the  force  of  the 
rolling  balls  and  flying  pins,  permitting  them  to  fall  gently  into  the  pit. 

The  " gutters"  are  the  concave  boards  that  extend  the  complete  length  of  the 
alley,  from  the  foul  Une  to  the  pit,  on  both  sides  of  the  bed.  The  purpose  is  to  take 

care  of  the  misdirected  balls  that  roll 
off  the  bed  before  reaching  the  pit. 

The  "return  chute,"  or  "loop-the- 
loop  return,"  is  the  railway  along 
which  the  balls  travel  in  their  return 
from  the  pit  to  the  bowler.  It  is 
usually  placed  on  the  right-hand  side 
of  the  alley,  or  between  a  pair  of  alleys. 
At  the  pit  end,  the  chute  is  solidly 
constructed  with  a  concave  flanged 
surface  placed  on  the  top  of  the  kick- 
back. It  conforms  to  the  downward 
curve  of  the  latter,  but  the  rail  work 

begins  at  the  top  of  the  incline  and  extends  back  to  the  newel  post  at  the  bowler's 
end  of  the  alley.  The  flanges  easily  accommodate  the  balls  when  placed  on  the 
chute  by  the  pin  boy. 

The  newel  post  is  not  made  of  a  solid  block,  but  is  built  up,  being  veneered  on 
the  inside,  as  well  as  on  the  outside,  to  make  it  impervious  to  atmospheric  changes. 
The  top  contains  a  sponge  cup  to  moisten  the  fingers  of  the  bowler. 

The  rails  form  a  semicircle  at  the  post,  with  the  ends  of  the  arc  pointing  down 
the  alley.  A  tightly  stretched  leather  strap  extends  horizontally  from  the  upper 
end  of  the  arc  back  to  the  post,  where  it  is  fastened  with  a  swivel  screw.  Half  way 
up,  from  the  points  of  the  arc,  a  second  rail,  i.  e.j  the  "  receiver,"  is  built,  with  suffi- 
cient space  between  it  and  the  strap  to  allow  the  passage  of  the  largest  size  ball. 
With  the  momentum  gained  by  rolling  down  the  incline  of  the  kick-back,  the  ball 
rolls  back  on  the  inside  of  the  curve  until  it  strikes  the  strap,  where  its  course  is 
stopped,  and  it  drops  on  the  receiver,  ready  again  for  use  by  the  bowler. 

In  beginning  the  construction  of  an  alley,  the  mechanic  lays  the  leveling  strips 
on  which  the  bed  is  to  rest.  These  are  set  at  right  angles  to  the  direction  in  which 
the  bed  is  to  lie,  and  must  be  spirit-leveled  for  accuracy,  and  firmly  fastened  to  the 
foundation.  A  strip  of  cork  carpet  is  then  laid  the  full  width  of  the  alley  and  extending 
the  entire  length  of  the  bed.  This  is  to  reduce  to  a  minimum  the  sound  of  the  balls 
dropping  on  and  rolling  down  the  bed. 

On  the  leveling  strips  at  the  extreme  side  of  where  the  bed  is  to  lie,  a  3  x  1-inch 
maple  strip  is  laid,  widest  side  downward,  with  its  finished  one-inch  edge  nearest  to 
the  gutter.  One  end  of  this  strip  marks  the  extreme  end  of  the  approach.  The 


CROSS-SECTION  OF  BOWLING  BED  SHOWING  STEEL 
CLAMP 


THE  ^STORY  IN  A  BOWLING  ALLEY 359 

other  end  of  the  strip  is  continued  by  adding  other  strips  the  full  length  of  the  bed. 
When  these  have  been  carefully  squared  to  the  exact  direction  the  alley  is  to  run, 
they  are  fastened  to  the  leveling  strips. 

The  next  strip,  also  of  maple,  is  tongued  into  the  lower  one,  but  its  continuous 
length  extends  only  about  five  feet  beyond  the  foul  line,  or  about  eighteen  feet  from 
the  approach  end. 

A  bowling  bed  cannot  be  laid  as  an  ordinary  floor.  It  is  built  upon  its  side  and 
when  finished  resembles  a  wooden  wall  about  seventy-five  feet  long  four  inches  high 
and  three  inches  wide. 

The  approach  end  of  the  bed,  approximately  eighteen  feet  long,  is  constructed 
of  maple,  with  each  alternate  strip  of  the  3  x  1-inch  bed  stock  about  eighteen  inches 
shorter.  The  pit  end  of  the  bed  is  similarly  constructed  for  a  distance  of  about 
six  feet.  The  space  between  is  filled  in  with  the  pine  strips  of  the  same  dimensions, 
and  the  alternate  long  and  short  strips  at  the  inner  ends  of  the  approach  and  pit- 
ends  form  mortices  into  which  the  pine  dovetails. 

The  wear  on  the  bed  occurs  where  the  bowler  walks  and  drops  the  ball  and 


PIT  END  SECTION  OF  BOWLING  ALLEYS 

where  the  ball  strikes  the  pins;  hence  the  hard  maple.  The  interior  is  filled  with 
pine,  which  is  softer,  because  it  retains  a  higher  polish  and  prevents  the  rolling  ball 
from  bumping;  thus  throwing  it  from  its  proper  course. 

The  bed  is  thus  built  up  for  its  continuous  length,  strip  by  strip,  the  tongue  of 
one  strip  fitting  into  the  groove  of  the  other,  and  both  nailed  firmly  together,  until 
the  proper  width  (while  being  built,  the  height)  is  attained.  When  the  bed  is 
finished,  the  strips  are  clamped  with  steel  clamps,  the  turned-up  ends  of  which 
firmly  grip  the  sides  of  the  bed,  thus  preventing  warping  or  spreading.  While  the 
bed  is  still  in  this  upright  position,  a  one-inch  slot  is  cut  across  where  the  foul  line 
is  to  rest,  and  holes  are  bored  through  the  bed.  A  black  composition  strip,  i.  e., 
the  "foul-line,"  is  inserted  in  the  slot  and  bolted  through  the  holes  to  the  bottom 
of  the  bed. 

At  the  pit  end,  circular  slots  are  cut  and  holes  bored  for  the  purpose  of  counter- 
sinking and  fastening  the  "pin  spots."  The  latter  are  of  the  same  substance  as 
the  foul-line  and  all  are  sunk  flush  with  the  surface  of  the  bed. 

This — clamping  and  fastening — explains  the  necessity  for  building  the  bed  on 
its  side. 

It  is  now  ready  to  be  placed  into  position.  It  is  merely  toppled  over,  face  side 
upward,  clamped  side  underneath.  So  exact  has  it  been  built,  according  to  specifi- 


360 


THE  STORY  IN  A  BOWLING  ALLEY 


cations  and  alignment,  and  the  mass  is  so  heavy,  that  the  dead  weight  makes  it  lie 
where  it  falls  and  only  the  slightest  adjustment  is  necessary. 

The  height  of  the  leveling  strips,  plus  the  height  of  the  bed,  lift  its  surface  about 
six  inches  from  the  foundation  floor.  At  the  pins  end  of  the  bed,  this  forms  one 
of  the  sides  and  the  bottom  of  the  pit.  The  bottom  is  floored  with  maple  and  covered 
with  a  specially  prepared  pit  mat,  durable,  yet  soft,  so  as  not  to  damage  the  balls 
and  phis  falling  upon  it.  The  back  and  sides  of  the  pit  are  formed  by  the  kick-backs, 
braces  and  cushion. 

After  the  kick-backs  are  placed  in  position,  the  gutters  are  laid,  and  then  the 

return  chute  railway  is  laid,  between 
and  slightly  above  them.  At  the  ap- 
proach end  of  the  bed  the  newel  post 
is  firmly  fastened  to  the  foundation,  and 
the  floor  that  is  laid  above  the  latter  and 
flush  with  the  surface  of  the  bed  serves 
to  brace  the  post,  making  it  immovable. 
The  curved  end  of  the  chute  and  the 
receiver  are  then  added. 

The  bed  is  then  planed  its  entire 
length,  sandpapered,  shellaced  and  pol- 
ished. The  remainder  of  the  woodwork 
is  finished  in  its  natural  color  except  the 
gutters,  which  are  stained  mahogany 
and  shellaced.  They  are  thus  stained, 
not  only  for  artistic  effect,  but  to  clearly 
define  the  outer  edges  of  the  bed — a 
matter  of  great  importance  to  the  bowler 
when  trying  to  knock  down  the  two 
outer  pins  in  the  third  row. 

In  making  the  pins,  the  best  selected 
logs  are  sawed  into  blocks  about  2x1 
feet.  These  are  placed  in  a  lathe  and 
gouged  out,  forming  the  pin  in  the 
rough.  They  are  next  turned  down  to 
size  and  selected  for  quality  and  weight, 
after  which  they  are  kiln  dried  and 
receive  a  final  turning  to  perfect  their 
formation,  then  smoothed  and  finished. 
The  Backus  pin-setter  is  almost 
human  in  its  operation.  The  old  way 
was  to  hire  boys  to  set  up  the  pins  on 
the  spots  and  return  the  ball  via  the  return  chute.  The  phi-setter  relieves  the  boy 
of  the  major  and  most  time-consuming  part  of  this  work.  A  frame  holding  the 
machine  is  set  up  over  the  spots.  It  is  placed  so  high  that  it  does  not  interfere 
with  either  the  flying  pins  or  the  rolling  balls. 

As  the  pins  are  knocked  off  into  the  gutters,  or  the  pit,  the  pin  boy  picks  them 
up  and  lays  them  flat  on  their  sides  into  the  pockets  at  the  top  of  the  machine.  When 
a  "frame"  is  rolled  those  pins  standing  on  the  alley  remain  there  and  the  machine 
is  lowered  by  a  balance  weight  controlled  by  a  lever.  As  it  descends  the  pins  are 
automatically  set  on  end,  and  when  they  rest  on  the  spots  on  the  alley  the  machine 
releases  them  and  springs  up  to  its  original  position. 

Wooden  balls  for  bowling  were  never  satisfactory.  They  wore  put  too  easily 
and  never  retained  perfect  rotundity.  Fortunes  were  spent  in  experimenting  with 
other  materials  until  at  last  the  famous  "mineralite"  ball  was  perfected. 


BACKUS  AUTOMATIC  PIN  SETTERS 


THE  STORY  IN  A  BOWLING  ALLEY 361 

Its  composition  is  a  trade  secret,  but  its  chief  ingredient  is  rubber. 

First  the  composition  is  rolled  into  sheets.  These  are  then  molded  and  later  vul- 
canized, being  subject  to  terrific  pressure.  The  balls  are  then  smoothed  and  polished. 

As  it  is  impossible  to  make  a  perfectly  round  ball  and  have  the  weight  equally 
distributed,  the  ball  can  not  roll  true;  an  ingenious  device  overcomes  the  difficulty. 
The  ball  is  set  in  a  basin  of  mercury,  where  it  floats.  Naturally,  the  heavier  side 
of  the  ball  swings  to  the  bottom.  On  the  top,  diametrically  opposite  to  the  center  of 
weight,  a  chalk  mark  is  placed  on  the  ball  and  it  is  then  lifted  out  of  the  mercury. 

Diametrically  opposite  to  the  chalk  mark  a  small  hole  is  punched  into  the  ball 
to  indicate  the  weightiest  point.  Directly  beneath  this  is  stamped  the  trademark 
of  the  firm. 

Having  ascertained  the  proper  distance  apart  the  finger  holes  are  to  be  bored, 
the  ball  is  weighed  to  determine  the  excess  of  its  proposed  weight  when  finished. 

The  holes  are  then  machine  bored  at  the  respective  points,  sufficiently  deep 
to  reduce  the  weight  to  exact  specifications. 


How  are  Artificial  Precious  Stones  Made? 

The  art  of  manufacturing  gems  synthetically,  that  is,  by  the  combination  of 
chemical  elements  present  in  the  real  stone,  has  reached  a  high  degree  of  success. 

The  diamond,  which  is  an  allotropic  form  of  carbon,  has  hitherto  resisted  attempts 
to  reproduce  it  of  sufficient  size  to  have  a  commercial  value.  By  dissolving  carbon 
in  molten  iron  and  suddenly  cooling  the  molten  mass  by  a  stream  of  water,  where- 
upon the  outer  part  contracts  with  great  force  and  compresses  the  interior  so  that 
the  carbon  separates  out,  Moissan,  the  French  chemist,  succeeded  in  isolating  small 
crystals,  none,  however,  as  large  as  one-twenty-fifth  of  an  inch  in  diameter. 

Experiments  in  the  manufacture  of  the  ruby  have  met  with  such  success  that 
the  synthetic  ruby  is  produced  of  a  size  and  of  a  perfection  that  would  place  a  pro- 
hibitive value  on  the  natural  stone.  The  ruby,  chemically  considered,  is  crystal- 
lized alumina,  or  oxide  of  aluminum,  with  a  small  percentage  of  oxide  of  chromium. 

Sapphire  is  of  the  same  material,  differing  from  the  ruby  only  in  color.  The 
ruby  owes  its  fine  red  color  to  the  presence  of  oxide  of  chromium;  the  sapphire  its 
deep  blue  to  either  a  lower  oxide  of  chromium  or  to  an  oxide  of  titanium. 

Crystallized  alumina  in  the  different  colors  receives  different  trade  names,  as 
Oriental  emerald  for  the  green;  Oriental  topaz  for  the  yellow;  Oriental  amethyst 
for  the  purple;  while  the  water-clear,  colorless  crystal  is  known  as  white  sapphire. 

The  process  of  manufacture  of  rubies  is  carried  on  with  the  oxyhydrogen  blow- 
pipe, to  whose  intense  heat  the  powdered  alumina  with  its  coloring  oxides  is  sub- 
jected. Rubies  have  been  thus  produced  weighing  twelve  to  fifteen  carats  when 
cut.  The  average  weight  of  the  native  Burmese  ruby  is  about  one-eighth  of  a  carat. 
The  sapphire  and  the  so-called  Oriental  stones  are  prepared  in  the  same  manner, 
with  the  addition  of  proper  coloring  matter. 

The  emerald  and  opal  have  not  emerged  from  the  experimental  stage,  although 
Becquerel,  a  French  chemist,  is  reported  to  have  produced  opals  from  solutions  of 
silicates  with  high-tension  electric  currents. 

To  be  distinguished  from  synthetic  gems  are  reconstructed  stones,  which  (as 
yet  only  done  with  the  ruby)  are  pieces  of  the  natural  stone  fused  together.  They 
are  very  brittle. 

The  pearl  is  not  produced  synthetically,  but  many  imitations  exist.  The 
Japanese  produce  them  by  fastening  a  piece  of  mother-of-pearl  in  the  shells  of  the 
pearl-oyster  and  allowing  it  to  remain  there  for  a  number  of  years. 

The  turquoise,  a  phosphate  of  aluminum  colored  with  copper,  is  not  synthetically 
produced,  although  various  experiments  with  its  manufacture  have  been  made. 


362 


WHAT  IS  A  MEXICAN  BULL-FIGHT  LIKE 


WHAT  IS  A  MEXICAN  BULL-FIGHT  LIKE  363 

What  is  a  Mexican  Bull-Fight  Like? 

Bull-fights  are  among  the  favorite  diversions  of  the  Spaniards.  They  are 
usually  held  in  an  amphitheater  having  circular  seats  rising  one  above  another,  and 
are  attended  by  vast  crowds  who  eagerly  pay  for  admission. 

The  combatants,  who  make  bull-fighting  their  profession,  march  into  the  arena 
in  procession.  They  are  of  various  kinds — the  picadores,  combatants  on  horseback, 
in  the  old  Spanish  knightly  garb;  the  chulos  and  banderilleros,  combatants  on  foot, 
in  gay  dresses,  with  colored  cloaks  or  banners;  and  finally,  the  matador  (the  killer). 

As  soon  as  the  signal  is  given  the  bull  is  let  into  the  arena.  The  picadores,  who 
have  stationed  themselves  near  him,  commence  the  attack  with  their  lances,  and  the 
bull  is  thus  goaded  to  fury.  Sometimes  a  horse  is  wounded  or  killed  (only  old,  worth- 
less animals  are  thus  employed),  and  the  rider  is  obliged  to  run  for  his  life.  The 
chulos  assist  the  horsemen  by  drawing  the  attention  of  the  bull  with  their  cloaks; 
and  in  case  of  danger  they  save  themselves  by  leaping  over  the  wooden  fence  which 
surrounds  the  arena.  The  banderilleros  then  come  into  play.  They  try  to  fasten  on 
the  bull  their  banderillas — barbed  darts  ornamented  with  colored  paper,  and  often 
having  squibs  or  crackers  attached.  If  they  succeed,  the  squibs  are  discharged  and 
the  bull  races  madly  about  the  arena. 

The  matador  or  espada  now  comes  in  gravely  with  a  naked  sword  and  a  red  flag 
to  decoy  the  bull  with,  and  aims  a  fatal  blow  at  the  animal.  The  slaughtered  bull 
is  dragged  away,  and  another  is  let  out  from  the  stall.  Several  bulls  are  so  disposed 
of  in  a  single  day. 

What  is  the  Difference  between  "  Alternating  "  and  "  Direct "  Current? 

Strong  currents  of  electricity  are  generated  in  the  electric  central  stations  and 
supplied  to  our  homes,  street  lamps  and  so  forth,  in  one  of  the  two  forms,  either 
"alternating"  or  " direct."  While  many  of  us  know  which  kind  is  furnished  to  our 
homes,  everyone  does  not  always  understand  the  difference  between  the  two. 

The  central  station  contains  a  number  of  powerful  dynamo  machines,  driven 
usually  by  steam  power.  The  positive  and  negative  terminals  of  the  dynamo  are 
put  in  connection  with  the  positive  and  negative  main  conductors  which  are  to  supply 
the  district,  and  from  these  mains  smaller  conductors  branch  off  to  the  houses  or 
lamps.  All  these  conductors  are  of  copper,  that  metal  when  pure  having  seven  times 
the  conductivity  of  iron. 

Different  methods  are  in  use  for  keeping  the  supply  of  electricity  steady  in  spite 
of  the  varying  demands  made  upon  it.  In  some  systems  of  distribution,  instead  of 
the  two  main  conductors  being  one  positive  and  the  other  negative,  each  is  positive 
and  negative  alternately,  the  reversals  taking  place  some  hundreds  of  times  per 
second.  The  currents  are  then  said  to  be  "  alternating."  When  such  reversals  do 
not  take  place,  the  currents  are  said  to  be  "  direct." 

What  was  the  "  Court  of  Love  "? 

The  " Court  of  Love"  existed  in  what  we  call  the  chivalric  period  of  the 
middle  ages. 

It  was  composed  of  knights,  poets  and  ladies,  who  discussed  and  gave  decisions 
on  subtle  questions  of  love  and  gallantry.  The  first  of  these  courts  was  probably 
established  in  Provence  about  the  twelfth  century.  They  reached  their  highest 
splendor  in  France,  under  Charles  VI,  through  the  influence  of  his  consort,  Isabella 
of  Bavaria,  whose  court  was  established  in  1380.  An  attempted  revival  was  made 
under  Louis  XIV  by  Cardinal  Richelieu. 


The  Story  of  the  Addressograph* 

If  you  were  asked  to  enumerate  the  different  kinds  of  clerical  work  performed 
in  the  modern  business  office,  you  would  probably  fail  to  mention  the  writing  of 
names.  Yet  the  writing  and  rewriting  of  names  is  as  essential  in  most  offices  as 
the  addition  of  figures  or  the  dictation  of  correspondence. 

In  fact,  names  represent  the  backbone  of  nearly  every  business  or  organization. 
There  is  the  list  of  names  of  those  people  you  sell  to;  the  names  of  those  people  you 
want  to  sell  to;  the  names  of  those  people  you  buy  from;  the  names  of  those  people 
who  owe  you  money;  the  names  of  those  people  to  whom  you  owe  money  and  the 
names  of  those  people  who  work  for  you.  Then,  lodges,  clubs,  churches  and  other 
organizations  must  maintain  lists  of  names  of  then*  members;  and  so  the  different 
kinds  of  lists  go  on  ad  infinitum. 

Now,  in  most  offices,  these  names  must  be  written  and  rewritten  over  and  over 
again — often  many  times  each  month — on  envelopes,  price-lists,  statements,  checks, 
pay  forms,  ledger  sheets,  order  forms,  tags,  labels,  etc.  And  in  many  offices  the 
writing  of  names  is  still  a  slow,  tedious,  drudging  ta&k — as  the  workers  in  those  offices 
will  testify. 

The  Birth  of  Mechanical  Addressing. 

But  in  one  office  this  monotonous  task  of  writing  and  rewriting  the  same  names 
over  and  over  again  became  such  a  hardship  that  the  man  who  had  to  do  it,  thinking 
twenty-five  years  ahead  of  his  time,  had  a  vision  of  performing  such  work  mechanically. 
That  vision  was  the  forerunner  of  the  Addressograph. 

In  the  early  90's,  Mr.  Joseph  S.  Duncan  was  manager  of  a  little  flour  and  grist 
mill  in  Iowa.  The  requirements  of  his  business  necessitated  the  daily  addressing 
of  100  quotation  cards.  Those  were  the  days  of  pen  and  ink  and  the  imperfectly 
developed  typewriter.  Mr.  Duncan's  office  was  small.  He  was  the  sole  worker  in 
that  office — and  as  the  typewriter  was  still  a  curiosity  in  that  section  of  the  country, 
Mr.  Duncan  was  obliged  to  depend  upon  pen  and  ink  in  addressing  his  daily  price 
cards.  This  routine  task  wasted  a  great  deal  of  his  valuable  time  each  day.  In  an 
effort  to  finish  the  work  quickly,  so  that  he  could  devote  his  attention  to  more 
important  matters,  Mr.  Duncan  found  that  he  was  frequently  sacrificing  accuracy 
for  speed.  Result — his  concern  often  suffered  considerable  loss  of  profit  because 
his  quotation  cards  did  not  reach  the  people  for  whom  they  were  intended.  Finally, 
becoming  disgusted  with  inefficient  and  inaccurate  pen  and  ink  addressing  methods, 
Mr.  Duncan  made  a  trip  to  Chicago  for  the  purpose  of  purchasing  a  machine  for 
addressing  his  price  cards.  But,  on  visiting  the  leading  stationery  and  office  equip- 
ment stores,  he  was  told  there  was  no  such  machine.  He  returned  to  his  office 
resigned  to  the  task  of  addressing  his  100  daily  quotation  cards  by  pen  and  ink.  But 
the  drudgery  and  monotony  of  this  work  would  not  down  in  his  mind.  The  mistakes 
and  omissions  made  hi  addressing  these  price  cards  became  no  less  frequent.  Finally, 
because  Mr.  Duncan  could  no  longer  be  reconciled  to  the  drudgery,  inaccuracy  and 
expense  of  hand  addressing,  he  determined  to  build  for  himself  a  machine  that  would 
lift  from  his  shoulders  this  monotonous  task. 

Builds  First  Addressograph. 

Mr.  Duncan  invented  and  built  his  first  addressing  machine  in  1892.  He  called 
it  the  " Addressograph" — a  coined  word  meaning  "to  write  addresses."  Although 

*  Illustrations  by  courtesy  of  the  Addressograph  Co. 

(364) 


THE   STORY  OF  THE  ADDRESSOGRAPH  365 

Mr.  Duncan  appreciated  the  saving  of  time  and  money  and  increase  in  accuracy 
which  his  little  invention  would  surely  create  in  the  writing  of  names  and  addresses, 
he  did  not  at  first  realize  the  great  place  his  remarkable  invention  was  destined  to 
take  in  the  commercial  world  as  a  "  business  energizer"  and  simplifier  of  routine  work. 

Like  the  first  steam  engine,  telephone  or  automobile, 
the  first  addressograph  was  crudely  simple  and  of  course 
presented  an  uncouth  mechanical  appearance.  Mr. 
Duncan  experimented  by  gluing  the  rubber  portion  of  a 
number  of  hand  stamps  to  a  wooden  drum.  This  drum 
was  placed  on  an  operating  shaft  in  the  addressograph, 
so  that  after  the  printing  of  one  name  and  address,  the 
drum  revolved  so  that  the  next  name  and  address  came 
into  printing  position.  The  type  impressions  thus  ob- 
tained were  fairly  readable.  But  Mr.  Duncan  soon 
realized  that  the  idea  of  gluing  the  type  permanently  to  a 
wooden  drum  was  unpractical.  Only  a  few  addresses 
could  be  placed  around  the  drum  and  the  method  of  gluing 
them  permanently  into  place  made  it  practically  impos- 
sible to  make  corrections  when  changes  in  address 
occurred,  or  to  add  new  names  as  occasion  demanded. 

Greater  flexibility  was  needed.  So  Mr.  Duncan 
designed  and  built  what  is  now  known  as  the  first  chain 
addressograph.  Individual  rubber  type  characters  were 
pushed  into  metal  type  holders  with  a  pair  of  tweezers. 
These  type  holders  were  then  ingeniously  linked  together  THE  FIRST  ADDRESSOGRAPH 
in  the  form  of  an  endless  chain.  These  chains  were 

placed  over  a  revolving  metal  drum,  and  as  each  separate  name  and  address  came 
to  the  printing  point  of  the  addressograph,  the  operator  pushed  down  on  a  vertical 
stamper  rod  which  pushed  the  envelope,  or  whatever  form  was  to  be  addressed, 
against  the  rubber  type  which  was  inked  just  before  reaching  the  printing  point. 
Here,  at  last,  was  a  practical  addressing  machine  which  enabled  the  user  to  accurately 
print  names  and  addresses — typewriter  style — ten  times  faster  than  was  possible 
by  any  other  method,  and,  quite  as  important,  to  make  changes  and  additions  to 
the  list. 

The  Beginning  of  a  Great  Industry. 

By  this  time,  Mr.  Duncan  had  moved  his  base  of  operations  from  Iowa  to 
Chicago.  So  well  was  his  first  practical  model  of  the  addressograph  received  by 
Chicago  business  men  that  he  sold  the  first  half-dozen  manufactured  within  a  short 
time.  Enthused  with  his  success,  Mr.  Duncan  decided  to  enter  into  the  manufacture 
and  sale  of  addressographs  on  as  extensive  a  basis  as  the  demand  for  his  invention 
warranted.  But  to  do  this  it  was  necessary  for  him  to  secure  more  capital.  Conse- 
quently, he  interested  Mr.  J.  B.  Hall — a  Chicago  business  man — in  his  project,  and 
in  January,  1896,  Mr.  Duncan  and  Mr.  Hall  formed  a  partnership  and  called  it  the 
" Addressograph  Company." 

Mr.  Hall's  first  step  was  to  find  out  what  the  leading  business  men  of  his  time 
thought  of  the  addressograph.  So  he  made  a  trip  to  New  York  City — taking  with 
him  one  of  the  little  hand-operated  chain  addressographs.  Here,  Mr.  Hall  called 
upon  Henry  Clews,  J.  Pierpont  Morgan  and  other  prominent  business  men.  He 
also  visited  the  offices  of  the  large  public  service  and  insurance  companies.  In  every 
case,  Mr.  Hall  was  courteously  received,  but  after  demonstrating  the  addressograph 
was  told  that  while  it  was  interesting  and  a  step  in  the  right  direction,  it  was  still 
in  too  primitive  a  state  to  prove  of  any  great  value  in  addressing  a  large  list  of  names. 


366 THE  STORY  OF  THE  ADDRESSOGRAPH 

Answering  Demand  for  Greater  Speed. 

Naturally,  Mr.  Hall's  first  thought  on  his  return  to  Chicago  was  to  induce  Mr. 
Duncan  to  build  a  larger  model,  capable  of  greater  speed  and  greater  output.  Acting 
upon  Mr.  HalPs  suggestion,  Mr.  Duncan,  in  a  short  time,  perfected  a  larger  chain 
addressograph,  operated  by  foot-lever  and  embodying  several  important  improve- 
ments. As  the  Addressograph  Company  was  maintaining  at  that  time  only  a 
small  sales  office,  a  contract  was  let  to  the  Blackman  Machine  Company,  of  Chicago,  to 
build  fifteen  of  these  new  foot-lever  chain  addressographs.  And  it  was  this  new 
model  which  caused  the  addressograph  to  take  its  place  in  the  business  world  as  one 
of  the  leading  office  appliances.  Many  of  these  new  chain  addressographs  were 

sold.  Having  formerly  been  engaged  in 
the  public  service  field,  Mr.  Hall  was  quick 
to  realize  the  advantages  which  mechanical 
addressing  offered  to  gas,  electric  light, 
water  and  telephone  companies.  As  a 
result,  the  majority  of  the  first  addresso- 
graph sahs  were  made  to  these  lines  of 
business. 

With  the  constantly  increasing  use  of 
the  addressograph,  suggestions  for  improve- 
ment and  further  development  were  freely 
offered  by  addressograph  customers  and  just 
as  liberally  entertained  by  Mr.  Duncan. 

RUBBER  CHAIN  ADDRESSOGRAPH  OPERATED  As  a  f^ult  of  these  suggestions  another 
BY  FOOT  LEVER  AND  MOUNTED  IN  WOOD  important  advance  took  place  in  addresso- 
CABINET  graph  development.  A  customer,  after 

writing  words  of  praise  about  his  addresso- 
graph, suggested  that  if  some  means  could  be  arrived  at  to  avoid  the  necessity  of 
setting  and  resetting  the  individual  pieces  of  rubber  type,  a  great  saving  in  time 
and  money  could  be  accomplished  in  making  changes  and  additions  to  a  list  of  names. 

Invents  Embossed  Metal  Address  Plate. 

After  considerable  thought,  Mr.  Duncan  hit  upon  the  plan  of  embossing,  type- 
writer style,  characters  upon  a  metal  plate.  To  do  this,  it  was  necessary  for  him 
to  invent  and  perfect  the  Graphotype — a  machine  which  writes  names  and  addresses 
on  metal  plates  almost  as  quickly  as  the  same  data  can  be  written  on  paper  with  the 
typewriter.  The  first  embossed  metal  plates  were  linked  together  in  the  form  of 
an  endless  chain,  similar  to  the  rubber  type  plates.  A  new  addressograph  was 
perfected  for  printing  impressions  from  these  embossed  metal  plates.  It  was  called 
the  No.  2  Chain  Addressograph. 

The  Addressograph  Company  now  had  two  models  to  sell.  But,  owing  to  the 
fact  that  the  rubber  chain  addressograph  permitted  users  to  make  changes  and 
additions  in  their  own  offices,  a  greater  number  of  machines  of  this  model  were  sold 
than  of  the  metal  chain  addressograph;  because,  with  the  latter  model,  it  was  neces- 
sary for  the  customer  to  send  to  Chicago  to  have  his  new  metal  links  embossed  with 
the  graphotype  for  the  changes  and  additions  of  his  list. 

By  this  time,  the  Addressograph  Company  had  established  itself  in  its  own 
factory  in  Chicago.  Branch  offices  had  also  been  opened  in  New  York,  Philadelphia, 
Boston  and  other  principal  points,  and  out  of  these  offices  was  traveling  a  small 
but  enthusiastic  group  of  salesmen.  Many  firms,  large  and  small,  throughout  the 
country  were  using  and  recommending  the  chain  addressograph.  And,  crude  as 
that  model  seems  now,  it  was  proving  a  wonderful  time  and  labor  saver  in  the  offices 
in  which  it  was  used— and  paying  back  its  cost  many  times  each  year  because  of 


THE  STORY  OF  THE  ADDRESSOGRAPH 


367 


RUBBER  CARD  INDEX  ADDRESS  PLATE 


the  fact  that  it  accurately  printed  names  and  addresses  ten  times  faster  than  was 
possible  to  write  such  data  by  pen  or  typewriter. 

A  Card  Index  that  Addresses  Itself. 

As  the  use  of  the  addressograph  increased,  Mr.  Duncan  and  Mr.  Hall  realized 
the  need  of  a  more  efficient  way  of  making  changes  and  additions  to  the  list  of  names. 
It  was  important  that  individual  names  be 
located  and  removed  from  the  list  more 
quickly  than  was  possible  with  the  chain 
addressograph.  Demand  for  improvement 
along  this  line  was  stimulated  by  the  loose- 
leaf  and  card  index  wave  which  was  just 
then  beginning  to  sweep  the  country.  And 
Mr.  Duncan,  taking  the  card  index  idea  as 
a  basis,  designed  what  he  called  the  Model 
"A"  or  Rubber  Card  Index  Addressograph. 
Instead  of  the  separate  plates  being  linked 
together  in  the  form  of  a  chain,  they  were 
inserted  into  a  tin  holder — called  the  frame 
— which  closely  resembled  in  appearance  a 
3x5  paper  file  card.  In  addition  to  carry- 
ing a  printing  plate,  this  frame  also  carried  a  paper  card  bearing  a  proof  of  its  respec- 
tive printing  plate.  In  this  complete  form,  these  address  plates  were  filed  in  steel 
filing  drawers  like  ordinary  paper  cards.  About  every  fifteenth  address  plate  in  a 
drawer  was  equipped  with  a  vertical,  subdividing  tab — numerical,  alphabetical  or 
geographical  as  the  case  might  require.  Each  filing  drawer  carried  a  printed  label 
showing  the  contents  of  the  drawer — and  by  means  of  these  complete  card  index 
features  it  proved  a  simple  matter  to  locate  and  remove  individual  names  when 
making  revisions  to  the  list;  and,  in  addition,  these  features  afforded  all  of  the 
advantages  of  a  perfect  reference  file,  as  the  paper  proof  card  could  be  provided 
with  a  printed  form  for  retaining  memoranda. 

Of  course,  a  new  addressograph  was  necessary  to  handle  this  card  index  improve- 
ment.    And  in  the  Model  "A"  Addressograph,  we  find  the  basic  principle  of  the 

addressograph  of  today.  A  drawerful  of 
plates  is  emptied  into  the  magazine.  The 
empty  filing  drawer  is  placed  beneath  the 
addressograph  so  that  after  addressing  the 
address  plates  fall  back  into  the  original 
drawer  in  their  original  card  index  order. 

Electric  Motor  Increases  Speed. 

Not  only  was  it  necessary  to  meet  the 
demand  for  card  index  conveniences,  but 
it  was  also  important  to  equip  the  Model 
"A"  Addressograph  with  an  electric  motor 
for  increasing  its  speed  of  operation  and 
insuring  a  greater  output.  As  was  to  be 
expected,  the  card  index  and  electrically 
operated  features  caused  thousands  of  concerns,  large  and  small,  to  adopt  the  addresso- 
graph. Large  mercantile  houses,  addressing  thousands  of  names — who  had  formerly 
held  aloof  from  the  addressograph  because  of  itr>  limited  advantages  for  making  changes 
and  additions — now  placed  their  orders  with  instructions  to  rush  delivery.  With  busi- 
ness houses  all  over  the  country  rapidly  changing  from  bound  books  to  loose-leaf  cart( 


Albany  Belting  &  Supply  Co., 

1375  Washington  Ave. , 
• — -  Albany  .N.Y. 


METAL  CARD  INDEX  ADDRESS  PLATE 


368 


THE  STORY  OF  THE  ADDRESSOGRAPH 


index  records,  the  demand  for  chain  addressograph  models  diminished  and  more  and 
more  orders  were  received  for  the  rubber  card  index  addressographs.  Business  men, 
generally,  were  now  taking  a  real  interest  in  mechanical  addressing  and  the  saving  which 

the  addressograph  made  possible  in  their  offices.  This 
interest  was  increased  materially  with  the  growth  of 
mail-order  businesses  and  the  constantly  increasing 
use  of  direct-by-mail  advertising  by  business  con- 
cerns, large  and  small.  Firms  having  mailing  lists 
were  increasing  them.  Those  firms  which  had  not 
previously  used  direct-by-mail  advertising  were  now 
coming  to  realize  the  many  advantages  of  that 
modern  selling  short-cut  and  were  compiling  large 
lists  of  names.  The  rubber  card  index  addresso- 
graph had  by  now  proved  itself  a  wonderful  time  and 
labor  saver  in  addressing  and  maintaining  lists  of 
names  of  average  size.  But,  with  the  advent  of  large 
lists,  the  high  cost  of  rubber  type  presented  a  serious 
objection  to  many  firms  regarding  the  installation 
of  the  addressograph.  Furthermore,  large  lists  of 
names  were  subject  to 
many  changes  and  ad- 
ditions— and  in  this 
connection,  setting  up 
the  address  plates  in 
rubber  type  proved 
quite  slow  and  expen- 
sive. So,  to  bring  the 
addressograph  abreast 
of  modern  conditions, 
Mr.  Duncan  combined 
the  card  index  filing 
ideawith  the  embossed 
metal  plate  which  he 

had  previously  worked  out  for  use  with  the  chain 
addressograph.  With  the  coming  of  the  metal  card 
index  addressograph  and  the  modern  graphotype  for 
making  the  metal  address  plates,  the  addressing  ma- 
chine business  was  "revolutionized,"  as  Mr.  Duncan 
put  it.  With  the  graphotype,  address  plates  for 
changes  and  additions  could  be  made  at  almost  type- 
writer speed.  The  card  index  address  plate  required 
less  filing  space  than  was  true  of  the  rubber  card  index 
address  plate,  printed  cleaner  impressions  and  from 
every  standpoint  was  superior  to  the  rubber  type 
system.  In  order  that  customers  could  make  their 
changes  and  additions  right  in  their  office,  the  grapho- 

type  was  further  developed  and  furnished  in  two  models,      ^J%£  §££££ 
one  operated  by  motor,  the  other  by  hand.  CHARACTERS  ON  METAL  ADDRESS 

PLATES 
Attachments  Increase  Utility  of  Addressograph. 

The  first  addressographs  were  intended  for  printing  names  and  addresses 
consecutively  on  envelopes  and  post  cards.  And  so  much  time  was  saved  on  this 
one  application  that  customers  soon  began  applying  it  to  other  kinds  of  work  in  their 


ELECTRIC  GRAPHOTYPE  WHICH 
EMBOSSES  TYPEWRITER  STYLE 
CHARACTERS  ON  METAL  ADDRESS 
PLATES 


THE  STORY  OF  THE  ADDRESSOGRAPH 


369 


AUTOMATIC  LISTING  ATTACHMENT 


HIGH  SPEED  AUTOMATIC  FEED  ADDRESSO-  AUTOMATIC    ENVELOPE    FEED    AD- 

GRAPH.    CAPACITY,  7, 500  ADDRESSED  ENVELOPES      DRESSOGRAPH.     SPEED,  5,000  ADDRESSED 
PER  HOUR  ENVELOPES  AN  HOUR 


370 THE  STORY  OF  THE  ADDRESSOGRAPH 

offices.  To  do  this  effectively,  it  was  necessary  for  Mr.  Duncan  to  work  out  addi- 
tional parts  called  "attachments"  which  permitted  the  addressing,  listing  and 
imprinting  of  names  and  other  data  on  office  forms  of  every  nature.  To  illustrate: 
the  dating  attachment  enabled  users  to  apply  the  addressograph  to  their  statement 
work.  With  this  attachment — which  can  quickly  be  thrown  in  or  out  of  operation 
— the  current  date  is  printed  at  the  head  of  a  statement  simultaneously  with  the 
printing  of  the  name  and  address.  Further,  to  use  the  addressograph  effectively 
for  statement  work,  it  was  necessary  to  devise  a  skipping  attachment — manipulated 
by  the  operator's  knee — permitting  him  to  skip  the  printing  of  impressions  from 
address  plates  of  those  customers  who  had  paid  their  accounts.  By  working  out 
the  listing  attachment,  Mr.  Duncan  made  it  possible  for  users  to  list  names  in  one 
or  more  vertical  columns  on  pay  sheets,  drivers'  route  sheets,  dividend  and  trial 
balance  sheets.  This  attachment  automatically  feeds  the  paper  and  spaces  the 
proper  distances  between  the  printing  of  each  address.  Then  came  the  electric 
bell  signal  and  automatic  selector  attachments.  Users  of  classified  lists  of  names 
were  enabled  by  these  attachments  to  place  tabs  in  sockets  at  the  top  and  back  of 
the  address  plates  to  indicate  the  different  classifications  on  the  list,  such  as  "  Buying 
Seasons,"  "Kinds  of  Products  Wanted,"  "Territories,"  " Expired  Dates,"  etc., 
and  by  means  of  these  attachments,  automatically  select  for  addressing  certain 
address  plates,  skipping  the  addressing  of  others. 

As  the  various  uses  for  the  adressograph  increased,  so  the  demand  for  different 
special  attachments  increased,  until  today,  the  addressograph  addresses,  lists  and 
imprints  names,  addresses  and  other  data  upon  every  office  form.  The  history  of 
the  addressograph  has  been  one  of  constant  development.  With  the  growth  of  large 
lists,  the  demand  for  greater  speed  in  addressing  was  answered  by  automatic  feed 
addressographs.  The  Automatic  No.  1  Addressograph  was  designed  to  automatically 
feed  and  address  envelopes  and  cards  at  the  rate  of  4,000  to  5,000  an  hour.  In  the 
Automatic  No.  3  Addressograph  we  find  the  highest  development  of  the  system. 
This  machine  automatically  feeds  and  addresses  public  service  bills,  insurance  premium 
notices  and  receipts,  cards,  envelopes, '  circulars,  etc.,  at  the  great  speed  of  6,000 
to  8,000  an  hour.  The  wrapper  addressograph  answered  the  demand  of  publishers 
for  great  speed  and  100  per  cent  accuracy.  This  model  of  the  addressograph 
automatically  feeds  wrappers  from  a  roll  and  in  addition  to  printing  the  name  and 
address  exact  typewriter  style,  also  prints  the  name  of  the  publication  and  postal 
permit  from  electrotypes,  indicates  mail  routes  on  the  back  of  the  wrappers,  separates 
into  a  separate  drawer  the  address  plates  of  those  people  whose  subscriptions 
have  expired,  and  cuts  the  wrapper  to  the  proper  size — all  at  the  speed  of  7,500 
per  hour. 

Small  Users  not  Overlooked. 

•  But,  while  Mr.  Duncan  and  his  associates  have  given  every  attention  to  the 
needs  of  users  of  large  lists  of  names,  he  has  not  overlooked  the  lodge  secretaries 
and  other  users  of  small  lists  of  names.  In  the  hand  addressograph,  which  sells  for 
as  low  as  $27,  he  has  worked  out  three  practical  models  having  an  average  speed 
of  from  750  to  1,500  names  and  addresses  an  hour.  Thousands  of  these  little 
machines  are  in  daily  use  and,  like  the  larger  models  of  the  addressograph,  are 
driving  drudgery  out  of  the  office — freeing  thousands  of  hands  from  the  monotonous, 
laborious  task  of  writing  names  and  addresses  by  pen  and  ink — in  short,  elevating 
the  position  of  the  office  worker  far  above  that  of  a  mere  automaton  and  making  it 
possible  for  him  to  earn  more  money  and  enjoy  a  happier  existence  by  doing  brain 
work  instead  of  manual  labor. 


THE  STORY  OF  THE  ADDRESSOGRAPH 


371 


WRAPPER  FEED  ADDRESSOGRAPH.     SPEED,  6,000  TO  8,000 
ADDRESSED  WRAPPERS  PER  HOUR 


SHOWING  HOW  TABS  ARE  INSERTED 
HAND  ADDRESSOGRAPH    (PRINTS  THROUGH        IN  BACK  OF  ADDRESS  PLATE  FOR  PUR- 
A  RIBBON).   SPEED,  1,000  TO  1,500 TYPEWRITTEN        POSES    OF    INDEXING    AND    CLASSIFYING 
ADDRESSES  AN  HOUR  LISTS 


372  THE  STORY  OF  THE  ADDRESSOGRAPH 

The  Addressograph — Its  Place  in  Business. 

Twenty-five  years'  use  of  the  addressograph  in  over  300  different  lines  of  busi- 
ness— manufacturers,  wholesalers  and  dealers,  insurance  companies,  public  service 
companies,  government  departments,  associations,  clubs,  churches,  lodges,  hotels 
and  schools,  laundries,  commission  merchants,  publishers,  railroad  and  steamship 
companies — in  truth,  every  business,  large  and  small,  where  a  list  of  names  is  fre- 
quently addressed — have  proved  the  utter  folly  of  slow,  tiring  hands  attempting  to 
compete  with  swift,  untiring  wheels.  Wherever  names  are  written,  there  you  will 
usually  find  the  addressograph  in  use,  saving  time  and  money,  guaranteeing  100 
per  cent  accuracy  and  insuring  maximum  efficiency.  There  are  many  different  models 
— some  operated  by  hand  or  foot-lever,  others  by  electric  motor;  some  are  entirely 
automatic.  So,  no  matter  how  many  names  and  addresses  are  written — fifty  or 
a  million — the  addressograph,  like  the  telephone  or  typewriter,  has  come  to  be 
recognized  as  a  modern  business  necessity, 


What  is  "  Dry  Fanning  "? 

Dry  farming  is  a  method  which  has  been  recently  developed  and  which  is  coming 
into  even  wider  use.  The  United  States  Department  of  Agriculture,  through  its 
experiment  stations,  has  made  a  careful  study  of  the  conditions,  possibilities  and 
limitations  of  the  practice,  and  the  following  is  a  brief  abstract  of  the  results: 

In  defining  the  term  dry  farming  it  is  explained  that  the  practice  includes  (1) 
deep  plowing  before  the  rainy  season  sets  in,  in  order  to  provide  in  the  soil  a  capacious 
water  storage  reservoir  and  an  ample  space  for  root  development;  (2)  light,  deep, 
even  seeding  or  planting  in  a  well-prepared,  moist  soil;  (3)  frequent,  thorough, 
level  cultivation  before  as  well  as  after  sowing  or  planting;  (4)  the  use  of  seed  bred 
and  selected  for  the  conditions  prevailing;  (5)  the  use  of  machinery  of  large  capacity; 
(6)  the  adoption  of  methods  for  the  concentration  of  crops. 

Crops  must  be  selected  or  developed  that  will  fit  the  environment,  and  there 
is  ample  field  for  investigation  in  the  improvement  and  development  of  crops  suitable 
to  dry  lands.  Wheat  stands  at  the  head  among  cereal  crops.  The  durum  or 
macaroni  wheats  do  especially  well;  but  other  varieties  are  also  grown,  as  are  oats, 
rye,  barley  and  spelt.  The  millets  are  among  the  best  paying  dry-farming  crops. 
There  are  few  legumes  that  have  shown  value  on  dry  lands,  but  peas,  beans  and 
alfalfa  are  the  most  promising  of  development.  Vegetables  and  both  shade  and  fruit 
trees  are  being  grown  in  districts  where  dry  farming  is  practiced. 

Fall  seeding  of  cereals,  wherever  the  conditions  will  permit,  is  preferable  to 
spring  seeding,  and  it  is  important  to  retain  the  snow  upon  the  land,  especially  in 
sections  where  it  forms  the  chief  part  of  the  total  precipitation.  The  snowfall  may 
be  retained  by  leaving  the  ground  rough  after  the  late  fall  plowing,  by  throwing  up 
borders  across  the  field  at  right  angles  with  the  prevailing  winds,  or  by  planting 
hedge  rows  or  shrubbery  across  the  field  at  short  intervals.  Usually  less  seed  should 
be  planted  per  acre  under  dry-farming  conditions  than  is  used  in  humid  sections. 
The  less  precipitation,  the  smaller  should  be  the  amount  of  seed  planted. 

What  is  a  "  Drying  Machine  "  Like? 

This  is  a  machine  used  in  bleaching,  dyeing  and  laundry  establishments,  con- 
sisting of  two  concentric  drums  or  cylinders,  one  within  the  other,  open  at  the  top, 
and  having  the  inner  cylinder  perforated  at  its  side  with  numerous  small  holes. 
The  goods  to  be  dried  are  placed  within  the  inner  cylinder,  and  the  machine  is  then 
made  to  rotate  with  great  velocity,  when,  by  the  action  of  centrifugal  force,  the  water 
escapes  through  the  holes  in  the  side. 


THE  NEW  YORK  STOCK  EXCHANGE 


373 


374 THE  NEW  YORK  STOCK  EXCHANGE 

How  does  the  New  York  Stock  Exchange  Operate? 

The  New  York  Stock  Exchange  is  typical  of  most  American  stock  exchanges, 
the  leading  ones  of  which  are  located  in  Boston,  Pittsburgh,  Philadelphia,  Chicago, 
Baltimore,  Cleveland,  Cincinnati,  New  Orleans,  Salt  Lake  City,  Denver,  San 
Francisco  and  St.  Louis.  American  stock  exchanges  differ  somewhat  in  their  opera- 
tion from  the  foreign  stock  exchanges,  the  principal  ones  of  which  are  those  of  London, 
Paris,  Berlin,  Amsterdam,  Antwerp,  Brussels,  Vienna  and  Petrograd. 

A  stock  exchange  is  really  an  organization  of  professional  brokers,  which  con- 
ducts speculation  and  investment  in  securities,  the  paper  representatives  of  trans- 
portation, industrial,  mining,  commercial  and  other  properties.  On  the  American 
stock  exchanges  one  broker  may  specialize  in  the  shares  of  the  Union  Pacific  Railroad, 
for  instance,  another  in  those  of  the  United  States  Steel  Corporation,  and  so  on. 
Some  brokers  deal  particularly  in  "odd  lots" — blocks  of  less  than  one  hundred 
shares — and  some  members,  called  "room  traders/'  speculate  entirely  for  their  own 
account  and  do  no  commission  business  for  customers.  The  commission  charged 
for  buying  or  selling  is  twelve  and  a  half  cents  a  share,  so  that  on  the  usual  order 
of  one  hundred  shares,  the  broker  receives  twelve  dollars  and  a  half. 

The  business  of  buying  and  selling  shares  is  done  in  a  large  room  known  as  the 
"floor."  Scattered  over  the  floor  are  a  large  number  of  high  posts.  Each  post 
bears  the  name  of  the  stock  or  stocks  which  may  be  traded  in  at  that  post.  This 
provision  is  to  bring  buyers  and  sellers  in  any  security  together  as  quickly  as  possible. 
A  broker  desiring  to  buy  shares  of  a  certain  stock  will  go  to  the  part  allotted  to  that 
stock  and  call  out  its  name  with  the  number  of  shares  wished  and  the  price  he  will 
pay.  This  is  his  bid.  Other  brokers  may  offer  the  stock  to  him  at  a  slightly  higher 
price,  or  his  bid  may  be  accepted  at  once.  As  soon  as  a  price  is  agreed  on,  each  broker 
— the  buyer  and  the  seller — makes  a  memorandum  of  the  transaction,  which  is 
reported  to  the  offices  at  once  by  telephone.  Meanwhile  the  broker  also  hands 
another  memorandum  of  the  transaction  to  an  errand  boy,  who  takes  the  memorandum 
at  once  to  the  telegraph  operator,  who  in  turn  sends  it  out  onto  the  little  instrument 
called  the  "ticker." 

Transactions  on  the  New  York  Stock  Exchange  may  be  made  in  three  different 
ways:  "Cash,"  "regular"  or  on  a  "limited  option"  to  buyer  and  seller  as  to  the 
time  of  delivery  or  acceptance.  "Cash"  means  that  stock  bought  in  this  manner 
is  taken  up  and  paid  for  the  same  day;  "regular"  transactions  mean  that  the  stock 
bought  in  this  way  must  be  taken  up  and  paid  for  by  a  quarter  past  two  o'clock  of 
the  following  afternoon. 

Upon  the  outbreak  of  the  European  war,  panic  ensued  among  holders  of 
securities,  and  the  stock  exchanges  of  the  world  were  closed  to  prevent  the  selling 
of  stocks  at  prices  which  would  have  brought  ruin  to  banks  and  other  financial 
houses.  Practically  none  of  them  were  opened  until  December,  1914,  and  then  only 
under  severe  restrictions  which  were  held  in  force  until  confidence  had  returned. 

How  did  the  Term  "  Cowboys  "  Originate? 

The  term  "cowboys"  was  first  used  during  the  American  Revolution.  It  was 
applied  to  a  band  of  Tories  who  infested  the  neutral  ground  of  Westchester  County, 
New  York,  stealing  cattle  from  both  parties  and  doing  other  mischief. 

It  has  been  used  of  recent  years  to  designate  the  skilled  horsemen  who  have 
charge  of  the  cattle  on  the  great  ranges  of  the  West.  Many  of  them  enlisted  in  the 
Rough  Rider  regiment  of  the  Spanish  war  and  proved  daring  soldiers. 


The  Story  in  a  Chemical  Fire 
Extinguisher* 

A  little  smoke,  a  flash,  and  a  waste  basket,  a  curtain  or  something  else  is  in 
flames.  A  few  years  ago  an  excited  person  would  fail  to  extinguish  the  blaze  with 
water  or  with  any  other  first  aid  at  hand  and  would  call  for  the  fire  department. 
When  that  arrived  the  fire  frequently  would  be  beyond  control. 

Modern  methods  have  wrought  great  changes. 
Nowadays,  in  case  of  fire,  any  man,  woman  or  child 
can  reach  for  a  fire  extinguisher  and  after  a  few  strokes 
of  the  pump  the  fire  is  out. 

This  change  did  not  come  all  at  once.  The  fire 
extinguisher  has  been  developing  ever  since  man  learned 
to  fear  fire.  Devices  for  extinguishing  fire  are  almost 
coeval  with  that  element  itself.  In  the  second  century 
before  Christ,  the  Egyptians  had  pumps  worked  by 
levers  to  put  out  their  fires.  The  Roman,  Pliny,  refers 
to  fire  extinguishers  but  gives  no  account  of  their  con- 
struction. Apollodoms,  architect  of  the  Emperor 
Trajan,  speaks  of  leathsrn  bags  with  pipes  attached. 
Water  was  projected  by  squeezing  the  bags.  Medieval 
Europe  used  various  forms  of  water  pumps,  and  it  was 
not  until  the  opening  of  the  nineteenth  century  that 
chemicals  were  used  to  combat  fire. 

There  are  two  classes  of  chemical  fire  extinguishers : 
the  soda  and  acid  tank  or  three-gallon  type,  and  the 
one-quart  pump  type.  The  latter  came  when  the 
efficiency  of  carbon  tetrachloride  as  an  extinguishing 
agent  became  known.  All  the  extinguishers  of  this 
type  use  a  liquid  which  has  carbon  tetrachloride  as  a 
base.  The  liquid  is  a  combination  of  organic  materials 
with  an  aromatic  odor  and  high  specific  gravity.  When 
subjected  to  a  temperature  of  200°  F.  or  over,  it  changes 
to  a  heavy,  cohering,  non-poisonous  gas  blanket  which 
surrounds  the  burning  material  and  cuts  off  the  air  suppy 
necessary  for  the  life  of  the  fire. 

The  first  one-quart  pump  type  of  extinguisher 
appeared  in  the  United  States  in  1907.  There  was 
little  resemblance  between  it  and  the  extinguisher  of 
today.  A  cylindrical  tube  with  a  perforated  end  con- 
tained the  liquid.  The  user  was  expected  to  sprinkle  the 
liquid  over  the  fire  just  as  salt  is  sprinkled  from  a  salt- 
cellar over  meat. 

One  company  applied  the  idea  of  pumping  the  liquid  on  the  fire  in  1909.  They 
introduced  a  single-acting  pump.  The  user  inserted  the  nozzle  in  the  liquid,  drew 
it  into  the  pump,  and  then  ejected  it  on  the  flames.  This  company  substituted  a 
double-acting  pump  early  in  1910.  The  container  for  the  fluid  and  the  pump  were  thus 
combined  and  the  extinguisher  had  the  general  appearance  of  those  now  on  the  market. 

*  Illustrations  by  courtesy  of  the  Pyrene  Manufacturing  Co. 

(375) 


376      STORY  IN  A  CHEMICAL  FIRE  EXTINGUISHER 


Brass  construction  was  substituted  for  tin  in  the  latter  part  of  1910,  and  in  1911 
all  brass  construction  was  adopted.  The  extinguisher  has  remained  practically 
unchanged  since  1911. 

This  was  the  only  one-quart  type  extinguisher  on  the  market  until  1911.  Since 
then  several  others  have  been  marketed.  All  use  an  extinguishing  liquid  with  carbon 
tetrachloride  as  a  base.  They  differ  principally  in  the  manner  of 
its  ejection.  The  original  type  pumps  the  liquid  out  by  hand. 
Others  eject  it  by  air  pressure  or  by  a  combination  of  the  two 
methods.  The  objection  made  by  some  people  to  the  use  of  air 
pressure  is  that  it  demands  attention  and  the  use  of  a  complicated 
mechanism  which  more  readily  gets  out  of  order. 

The  liquid  extinguishing  agent  has  seen  little  change  since 
1907.  In  1914  it  was  modified  so  that  it  injures  nothing  with 
which  it  comes  in  contact.  It  puts  out  fires  originating  in  oily 
wastes,  turpentine  and  shellac,  and  fires  resulting  from  the  ignition 
of  gasoline,  benzine  or  acetylene  gas,  on  which  ordinary  chemicals 
and  water  are  useless.  It  extinguishes  electrical  fires  without 
injuring  insulation  or  apparatus  and  without  injury  to  the  operator. 
A  stream  of  this  liquid  has  been  directed  upon  a  circuit  of  110,000 
volts  without  the  least  harm  to  the  operator. 

A  German  originated  the  soda  and  acid  type 
of  extinguisher  from  tests  made  in  Denmark 
between  1830  and  1835.  The  enterprising 
Teuton  divided  a  hogshead  into  two  parts.  He 
filled  one  part  with  a  solution  of  alcohol  and 
water;  the  other  division  was  partly  filled  with 
sulphuric  acid.  His  problem  was  to  unite  the 
two  when  he  wanted  to  put  out  a  fire.  This 
was  accomplished  by  fastening  a  charge  of 
gunpowder  in  such  a  way  that  when  exploded 
it  would  break  the  partition  and  mix  the  solu- 
tions. French  ingenuity  added  slight  improvements  a  short 
time  later. 

Alexander  Graham,  of  Lexington,  Virginia,  applied  for  patents 
on  this  type  of  extinguisher  a  number  of  times  between  1844  and 
1849.  He  was  unable  to  patent  his  invention.  A  fire  extinguisher 
company  in  Chicago  and  one  in  Baltimore  obtained  patents  on  what 
was  known  as  the  " bicarbonate  of  soda  and  sulphuric  acid"  extin- 
guisher by  a  special  act  of  Congress  in  1865.  These  patents  were 
known  as  the  Graham  patents,  and  both  extinguishers  were  called 
the  " break-bottle  type"  because  the  soda  and  acid  were  mixed 
when  a  glass  bottle  containing  the  latter  was  broken. 

The  " up-set"  type  of  soda  and  acid  extinguisher  was  adapted 
by  Meyerose  in  St.  Louis  in  1891.  The  improvement  lay  in  the 
vessel  containing  the  acid  being  upset  instead  of  broken.  This  extin- 
guisher was  of  copper  construction  and  had  a  capacity  of  three  gallons.  One  fire 
extinguisher  company  improved  upon  the  original  type  of  "up-set"  extinguisher 
in  1893  by  lining  the  extinguisher  with  lead  which  the  acid  did  not  affect. 
Since  1893  there  have  been  no  improvements  of  consequence  on  the  soda  and 
acid  extinguisher.  It  consists  of  a  cylindrical  container  with  a  solution  of 
sodium  bicarbonate.  Over  the  bicarbonate  is  suspended  a  vessel  containing 
sulphuric  acid.  When  in  use  the  acid  is  tilted  over  and  comes  in  contact  with 
the  bicarbonate.  This  liberates  carbon  dioxide.  The  pressure  generated  is 


STORY  IN  A  CHEMICAL  FIRE  EXTINGUISHER       377 

sufficient  to  throw  a  stream  of  the  bicarbonate  solution  forty  feet.  The  chief  dis- 
advantages of  the  soda  and  acid  type  of  extinguisher  are  that  its  weight  makes  it 
cumbersome  to  operate  and  it  cannot  be  safely  used  on  electrical  fires  until  the  current 
has  been  turned  off. 


How  is  Gold  Leaf  Made? 

The  gold  is  cast  into  ingots  weighing  about  two  ounces  each,  and  measuring 
about  three-quarters  of  an  inch  broad.  These  ingots  are  passed  between  steel  rollers 
till  they  form  long  ribbons  of  such  thinness  that  a  square  inch  will  weigh  six  and 
one-half  grains.  Each  one  of  these  is  now  cut  into  150  pieces,  each  of  which  is  beaten 
on  an  anvil  till  it  is  about  an  inch  square.  These  150  plates  are  interlaid  with  pieces 
of  fine  vellum  about  four  inches  square,  and  beaten  till  the  gold  is  extended  nearly 
to  the  size  of  the  vellum  leaves.  Each  leaf  is  then  divided  into  four,  interlaid  with 
goldbeater's  skin,  and  beaten  out  to  the  dimensions  of  the  skin.  Another  similar 
division  and  beating  finishes  the  operation,  after  which  the  leaves  are  placed  in  paper 
books  ready  for  use.  The  leaves  are  about  three  and  a  quarter  inches  square  and  are 
produced  in  ten  different  shades  of  color,  according  as  the  gold  was  alloyed  with  much 
or  little  copper  or  silver. 

What  is  the  Natural  Color  of  Goldfish? 

It  is  greenish  in  color  in  the  natural  state,  the  golden-yellow  color  being  found 
only  in  domesticated  specimens,  and  retained  by  artificial  selection. 

These  fishes  are  reared  by  the  Chinese  in  small  ponds,  in  basins  or  porcelain 
vessels,  and  kept  for  ornament.  By  careful  selection,  many  strange  varieties  have 
been  propagated. 

They  are  now  distributed  over  nearly  all  the  civilized  parts  of  the  world,  but 
in  large  ponds  they  readily  revert  to  the  color  of  the  original  stock. 

When  was  "  Liquid  Fire  "  First  Used  in  Warfare? 

Long  before  the  European  war,  an  inflammable  and  destructive  compound  was 
used  in  warfare,  especially  by  the  Byzantine  Greeks. 

It  was  poured  from  caldrons  and  ladles,  vomited  through  long  copper  tubes, 
or  flung  in  pots,  phials  and  barrels. 

The  art  of  compounding  it  was  concealed  at  Constantinople  with  the  greatest 
care,  but  it  appears  that  naphtha,  sulphur  and  nitre  entered  into  its  composition. 

How  did  the  Greyhound  Get  His  Name? 

The  name  appears  to  have  no  reference  to  the  color,  but  is  derived  from  the 
Icelandic  "grey,"  meaning  a  dog.  They  are  used  chiefly  in  the  sport  of  coursing, 
a  work  for  which  their  peculiar  shape,  strength,  keenness  of  sight  and  speed  make 
them  exceedingly  well  fitted.  This  sport  is  preferred  by  many  people  to  horse  racing. 
There  are  several  varieties,  as  the  Irish  greyhound,  the  Scottish,  the  Russian,  the 
Italian  and  the  Turkish. 

The  common  greyhound  is  of  an  elegant  make  of  body,  and  is  universally  known 
as  the  fleetest  of  dogs. 

A  good  hound  has  a  fine,  soft,  flexible  skin,  with  thin,  silky  hair,  a  great  length 
of  nose,  contracting  gradually  from  the  eye  to  the  nostril,  a  full,  clear  and  penetrating 
eye,  small  ears,  erect  head,  long  neck,  chest  capacious,  deep,  but  not  wide,  shoulders 
deep  and  placed  obliquely,  ribs  well  arched,  contracted  belly  and  flank,  a  great  depth 
from  the  hips  to  the  hocks  of  the  hind-legs,  fore-legs  straight  and  shorter  than  the 
hind  legs. 


378 


WHY  IS  IT  CALLED  "BATTERY  PARK"? 


THE  GATEWAY  TO  AMERICA 

The  famous  statue  of  Liberty  in  New  York  Harbor.  The  grassy  space  in  the 
foreground  is  Battery  Park,  and  the  round  building  is  the  Aquarium.  Here  in  the 
early  days  stood  a  rude  "castle"  or  fort,  later  supplanted  by  an  opera  house. 
Washington  often  walked  in  the  old  garden  around  the  building,  as  did  other  great 

Americans.  Copyright  by  Underwood  &  Underwood,  N.  Y. 


WHY  IS  IT  CALLED  "BATTERY  PARK"?  379 

Why  is  It  Called  "  Battery  Park  "? 

The  extreme  southern  end  of  Manhattan  Island  is  both  popularly  and  officially 
known  as  " Battery  Park"  because  it  was  fortified  in  the  seventeenth  century  for  the 
protection  of  the  town.  In  the  picture  the  round  building  is  the  Aquarium,  which 
is  abundantly  supplied  with  sea  and  river  fishes.  The  picture  was  taken  from  a 
platform  of  the  Elevated  Railway,  the  trains  of  which  run  from  this  point  to  prac- 
tically the  northern  extremity  of  the  island,  making  stops  en  route  at  stations  situated 
at  approximately  every  eighth  street. 

Manhattan  Island  was  first  visited  in  1609  by  Henry  Hudson.  The  first  settle- 
ment was  located  three  years  afterward  on  the  present  site  of  Battery  Park.  The 
Dutch  settlement  here  formed  gradually  grew  into  a  town  called  New  Amsterdam, 
which  in  1648  had  1,000  inhabitants.  In  1664  it  surrendered  to  the  British  and  took 
its  new  name  from  the  Duke  of  York,  into  whose  hands  it  came.  It  was  the  capital 
of  the  State  of  New  York  from  1784  to  1797,  and  from  1785  to  1790  it  was  the  seat 
of  the  Federal  Government.  Washington  was  inaugurated  to  the  presidency  at  New 
York  in  1789.  The  opening  of  the  Erie  Canal  in  1825  gave  the  city  command  of 
internal  commerce  and  since  that  date  its  progress  has  been  rapid,  almost  beyond 
example. 

How  do  we  Know  that  the  Earth  is  Round? 

We  have  all  been  taught  that  the  earth  is  a  nearly  spherical  body  which  every 
twenty-four  hours  rotates  from  west  to  east  around  an  imaginary  line  called  its  axis 
— this  axis  having  as  its  extremities  the  north  and  south  poles  respectively — while  in 
the  course  of  a  year  it  completes  a  revolution  around  the  sun. 

To  an  observer  whose  view  is  not  obstructed,  any  part  of  the  earth  presents  itself 
as  a  circular  and  horizontal  expanse,  on  the  circumference  of  which  the  heavens  appear 
to  rest.  Accordingly,  in  remote  antiquity,  the  earth  was  regarded  as  a  flat,  circular 
body,  floating  on  the  water.  But  even  in  antiquity  the  spherical  form  of  the  earth 
began  to  be  suspected. 

It  is  only  on  this  supposition  that  we  can  explain  how  the  horizon  of  vision  grows 
wider  and  wider  the  higher  the  position  we  choose,  how  the  tops  of  towers  and  moun- 
tains at  a  distance  become  visible  before  the  bases,  how  the  hull  of  a  ship  disappears 
first  as  she  sails  away,  and  how,  as  we  go  from  the  poles  towards  the  equator,  new 
stars  become  visible.  Besides  these  proofs,  there  are  many  others,  such  as  the 
circular  shadow  of  the  earth  seen  on  the  moon  during  an  eclipse,  the  gradual  appear- 
ance and  disappearance  of  the  sun,  and  especially  the  fact  that  since  1519  the  earth 
has  been  regularly  circumnavigated. 

The  earth  is  not,  however,  an  exact  sphere,  but  is  very  slightly  flattened  at  the 
poles,  so  as  to  have  the  form  known  as  an  oblate  spheroid.  In  this  way  the  polar 
diameter,  or  diameter  from  pole  to  pole,  is  shorte'r  than  the  diameter  at  right  angles 
to  this — the  equatorial  diameter.  The  most  accurate  measurements  make  the  polar 
diameter  about  twenty-seven  miles  less  than  the  equatorial,  the  equatorial  diameter 
being  found  to  be  7,925.6  miles,  and  the  polar  7,899.14. 

What  were  "  Ducking  Stools  "? 

A  ducking  stool  was  a  sort  of  a  chair  in  which  "common  scolds"  were  formerly 
tied  and  plunged  into  water.  They  were  of  different  forms,  but  that  most  commonly 
in  use  consisted  of  an  upright  post  and  a  transverse  movable  beam  on  which  the  seat 
was  fitted  or  from  which  it  was  suspended  by  a  chain. 

The  ducking  stool  is  mentioned  in  the  Doomsday  survey;  it  was  extensively  in 
use  throughout  the  country  from  the  fifteenth  till  the  beginning  of  the  eighteenth 
century,  and  in  one  rare  case  at  least— at  Leominster— was  used  as  lately  as  1809. 


The  Story  in  Photo-Engraving* 

Modern  advertising  would  not  have  been  possible  without  photo-engraving. 
Attention  has  been  attracted,  desire  has  been  created  and  goods  have  been  sold, 
largely  through  the  pictorial  or  other  artistic  embellishments  which  have  lifted  par- 
ticular "ads"  out  of  the  mass  and  attracted  the  favorable  attention  of  the  cursory 
reader.  Pictures  are  the  universal  language,  not  only  to  those  of  divers  tongues, 
but  to  those  of  every  stage  of  mental  development. 

Photo-engravings  are  a  comparatively  modern  product.  They  superseded  wood 
engravings,  which  "for  years  has  been  the  recognized  medium  for  illustrations  to  print 

on  a  type  printing  press.  Photo-engrav- 
ings, broadly  speaking,  are  divided  into 
two  classes — line  engravings  and  half- 
tones. The  distinction  between  them 
lying  in  the  fact  that  one,  as  its  name 
implies,  is  a  reproduction  of  a  drawing 
made  in  lines  or  stipples,  while  the 
other,  the  halftone,  gets  its  name  from 
the  method  of  its  manufacture. 

Briefly  stated,  the  process  of  making 
halftones  is  as  follows:  The  subject  to 
be  engraved  is  photographed  through  a 
halftone  screen,  so-called.  This  half- 
tone screen  is  a  glass  plate  ruled  with 
lines  at  right  angles  ranging,  for  different 
purposes,  from  60  to  200  lines  to  the  inch. 
This  screen  is  placed  between  the  lens 
and  the  sensitized  plate  which  is  to  be 
the  negative.  The  necessity  for  this 
screen  is  due  to  the  fact  that  a  photo- 
graph is  made  up  of  "tones."  That  is 
to  say,  that  the  color  changes  imper- 
ceptibly in  subtle  gradations  of  light  and 
shade.  If  this  copy  were  photographed 
HALFTONE  ENGRAVING  on  a  piece  of  copper  it  would  present 

no  chance  for  the  etching  fluid  to  act. 

The  idea  is  to  break  up  the  surface  into  various  sized  dots,  as  the  various  grada- 
tions of  color  on  the  original  cannot  be  transferred  by  any  other  method  to  a  sheet 
of  copper  and  etched. 

The  various  tones  must  be  changed  either  to  lines  or  dots,  so  as  to  make  a 
printing  surface  for  the  ink  roller  of  the  press  to  operate.  This  is  necessary  to  get 
the  desired  printing  surface. 

The  dots  are  of  various  sizes,  ranging  from  a  minute  stipple  to  a  solid  black, 
and  they  present  to  the  eye  the  same  effect  as  the  unbroken  tones  of  a  photograph. 
The  negative  when  finished  shows  the  drawing  exactly  like  the  original.  The  whites 
are  opaque,  the  solid  blacks  are  clear  glass,  the  intermediate  tones  showing  the  same 
values  in  stipples  of  various  sizes.  The  film  of  the  negative  is  next  removed  from  the 


*  Illustrations  by  courtesy  of  Gatchel  &  Manning. 


(380) 


THE  STORY  IN  PHOTO-ENGRAVING 


381 


glass,  turned  and  placed  on  a  heavier  plate  glass  with  a  number  of  others  and  printed 

on  a  sheet  of  metal  which  has  been  coated  with  a  sensitized  solution. 

This  plate  of  heavy  glass  containing  the  several  negatives  is  placed  with  the 

sensitized  metal  in  a  printing  frame.     The  light  passes  through  the  clear  part  of  the 

negative,  the  solid  parts  prevent  the  passage  of 

light;   thus  we  have  the  light  acting  chemically 

on  the  sensitized  surface. 

After  the  print  is  removed  from  the  print- 
ing frame,  it  is  developed,  the  parts  acted  on 

by  the  light  adhering  to  the  metal.    The  opaque 

parts,  through  which  no  light  has  penetrated, 

leave  the  solution  soft  on  the  surface  of  the 

metal.      This   is  removed  by  placing  in  water 

and  wiping  gently  with  absorbent  cotton.     The 

print  is  then  dried  and   heated   over  a  stove 

which  bakes  the  sensitized  solution  to  the  metal. 

It  can  readily  be  seen  that  this  sheet  of  metal 

is  now  in  such  shape  that  the  etching  fluid  will 

etch  away  the  uncovered  portions  of  the  metal 

and  allow  the  protected  parts,  which  represent 

the  color  of  the  original,  to  remain  in  relief. 
This  plate  is  etched — a  flat  proof,  so  called, 

is  pulled  on  a  hand  press — and  it  is  then  taken 

up  by  the  re-etcher.    The  re-etcher  is  the  artist 

of  the  etching  room.    He  takes  the  plate  and  by 

covering  up  certain  parts  and  etching  again  gives 

additional  play  of  color.     Smaller  developments  of  lights  are  worked  out  by  careful 

manipulation  of  the  etching  fluid  with  small  sable  brushes.     The  differences  in  cost 

in  the  production  of  halftones  is  due  largely  to  the  length  of  time  devoted  to  this 

work.  The  engraver  or  finisher  then  takes 
charge  of  it,  preparing  the  engraving  for  the 
routing  department,  where  the  superfluous  metal 
is  removed.  The  plate  is  then  returned  to  the 
engraving  department,  which  completes  the 
work,  burnishing  darks,  engraving  highlights, 
removing  slight  imperfections  and  otherwise  per- 
fecting the  plate. 

It  is  then  proofed  and  blocked.  Nine 
separate  men  handle  each  engraving  in  the  half- 
tone department. 

The  making  of  line  engravings  follows  the 
same  general  course,  with  the  exception  that  no 
halftone  screen  is  needed,  the  copy  to  be  repro- 
duced being  already  made  up  of  lines  or  dots 
or  a  combination  of  them.  In  the  handling  of 
line  work,  eight  skilled  men  successively  handle 
each  plate. 

In  addition  to  plates  made  by  either  line 
or  halftone  process,  combinations  of  the  two 
are  frequently  used,  as,  for  instance,  where 


LINE  ENGRAVING 


COMBINATION  ENGRAVING 


decorative  pen  work  is  used  to  embellish  a  halftone  picture,  or  where  lettering  is 
to  be  used  in  connection  with  a  halftone  and  form  part  of  the  same  plate.  These 
plates  made  up  of  both  line  work  and  halftones  are  known  as  combination  plates 


382 


THE  STORY  IN  PHOTO-ENGRAVING 


or  double-prints,  depending  upon  the  way  they  are  produced.  In  both  cases,  nega- 
tives are  made  of  both  the  halftone  and  line  copies. 

Combination  plates  are  made  by  combining  the  halftone  and  line  negatives 
together  and  making  one  complete  print  on  the  metal. 

Double-print  is  used  where  the  surface  is  covered  with  halftone  screen,  either 

the  line  or  halftone  negative  is  printed  on  the 
metal,  the  other  is  superimposed  on  it. 

The  Benday  process,  so  called,  is  the  use  of 
mechanical  appliances  for  adding  lines  or  stipples 
to  either  drawings  or  plates.  Its  use  is  very 
extensive  in  the  making  of  tint  blocks  or  color 
work,  used  either  in  connection  with  line  or  half- 
tone key  plates.  ^ 

The  highlight  process,  possible  only  with 
certain  kinds  of  copy,  is  a  modification  of  the 
halftone  in  which,  by  manipulation  of  the  time 
of  exposure  and  the  screen  when  making  the  nega- 
tive, the  halftone  stipples  are  lost  and  in  this 
way  halftones  are  produced  in  which  there  are 
pure  whites,  without  the  necessity  of  the  finisher 
cutting  them  by  hand. 

BENDAY  ENGRAVING  Color  Engravings. 

Let  us  assume  that  we  have  a  painting  or  a 

drawing  in  colors  fronTwhich  it  is  desired  to  produce  a  set  of  printing  plates  to 
produce  that  drawing  in  facsimile.  Under  the  old  method  of  procedure,  lithog- 
raphy, it  would  have  been  necessary  to  make  a  stone  for  each  of  the  colors,  which 
would  mean,  roughly  speaking,  from  twelve  to  eighteen  stones  to  reproduce  it — it  will 
be  understood  that  this  means  the  finished  print  must  go  through  the  press  once 
for  each  color.  This  would  mean  twelve  to  eighteen  impressions  to  get  the  desired 
result.  The  expense  of  doing  this  limited  the  use  of  lithography. 


HIGHLIGHT  ENGRAVING 


The  modern  or  photo-engraving  method  of  reproducing  a  colored  copy  is  based 
on  the  theory  of  the  three  primary  colors,  yellow,  red  and  blue.  It  is  assumed  that 
every  color  is  formed  by  some  combination  of  these  three  colors — the  problem  con- 


THE  STORY  IN  PHOTO-ENGRAVING 383 

fronting  us,  therefore,  is  to  separate  these  three  colors  and  if  possible  make  a  printing 
plate  of  each  color  with  the  color  values  varying  from  light  to  dark  in  such  proportions 
that  when  the  three  are  printed  in  proper  register  over  each  other,  with  transparent 
printing  inks,  the  varying  color  values  will  blend  so  as  to  reproduce  the  original. 

We  go  about  this  by  making  three  negatives,  one  of  each  color,  the  red  negative 
is  made  by  placing  at  the  lens  a  so-called  color  filter,  which  separates  the  red  rays, 
whether  they  appear  as  pure  red  or  any  part  of  an  orange  or  a  purple,  or  any  of  the 
many  tones  of  which  red  may  form  a  part.  In  like  manner  the  yellow  and  blue 
plates  are  made  by  the  use  of  appropriate  color  filters,  each  of  which  acts  for  its 
required  color  as  that  used  for  the  red. 

So  far  this  would  appear  to  be  a  purely  mechanical  operation,  requiring  simply 
the  usual  care  in  negative  making,  but  unfortunately  this  theory  does  not  work  out 
so  absolutely  in  practice,  and  for  this  reason,  while  any  color  may  be  produced  in 
light  rays  by  the  union  of  the  three  primary  colors  of  the  proper  quality,  when  the 
operation  is  attempted  with  material  pigments  or  ink,  produce  results  varying  widely 
from  the  ideal.  No  pigment  is  absolutely  pure,  the  adulterants  or  foreign  substances 
will  cause  sufficient  deviation  from  the  abstract  standard  to  cause  a  very  noticeable 
difference  in  the  finished  result  when  united  with  another  color  which  is  of  itself 
impure.  The  result  is  that  the  three  negatives,  instead  of  each  being  a  true  unit, 
ready  for  combination  with  the  others,  is  really  only  a  basis  for  further  work.  It 
might  justly  be  compared  with  a  sketch  which  is  all  right  as  far  as  it  goes,  but  which 
requiries  toning  down  and  elaboration  before  becoming  a  finished  work  of  art. 

The  three  negatives  are  each  printed  on  sensitized  copper,  as  was  noted  with 
the  black  and  white  halftone;  they  are  then  turned  over  to  the  re-etcher,  who  may 
be  rightly  termed  an  " artist-etcher."  He  has  before  him  three  prints  on  copper; 
on  each  of  them  are  tones  which  to  his  trained  eye  are  too  light  or  too  dark  to  produce 
the  desired  result  when  printed  with  the  other  two,  which  also  vary  more  or  less. 
It  is  his  duty  to  strengthen  and  reduce  and  otherwise  manipulate  the  plates  so  that 
they  will,  when  finally  printed,  have  the  desired  result. 

For  every  particular  use  to  which  an  engraving  can  be  put,  there  is  some  par- 
ticular style  or  grade  of  engraving  better  adapted  than  any  other.  The  successful 
use  of  halftones,  whether  in  black  and  white  or  in  colors,  depends  on  the  care  with 
which  the  particular  screen  is  selected  to  suit  the  paper  stock  and  printing  conditions. 
To  illustrate  this,  the  150-line  screen  has  22,500  stipples  to  the  square  inch.  It  is 
apparent,  therefore,  that  only  certain  kinds  of  paper  can  be  used  for  such  halftones, 
whereas  a  60-line  screen  contains  only  3,600  stipples  to  the  square  inch,  which  permits 
its  use  on  a  newspaper  stock. 

The  production  of  engravings  is  just  as  highly  technical  and  scientific  and 
involves  as  much  experience  and  judgment  in  their  application  as  any  of  the  learned 
professions. 


Where  are  Milk-Pails  Filled  from  Trees? 

In  South  America  there  are  some  trees  known  as  "cow-trees'7  which,  when 
wounded,  yield  a  rich,  milky,  nutritious  juice  in  such  abundance  as  to  render  it  an 
important  article  of  food.  This  fluid  resembles  in  appearance  and  quality  the  milk 
of  the  cow. 

The  cow-tree  is  a  member  of  the  bread-fruit  family,  and  is  most  common  in 
Venezuela,  growing  to  the  height  of  a  hundred  feet.  The  leaves  are  leathery,  about 
a  foot  long  and  three  or  four  inches  broad. 

In  British  Guiana  the  name  is  given  to  another  large,  much-branched  tree,  and 
there  are  also  other  varieties  in  Para  and  along  the  Rio  Negro,  which  is  a  tributary 
of  the  Amazon  River. 


384    HOW  THE  WEARING  OF  A  CROWN  ORIGINATED 


How  did  the  Wearing  of  a  Crown  Originate? 

When  we  speak  of  a  crown  now  we  mean  the  head-dress  worn  by  royal  personages 
as  a  badge  of  sovereignty,  but  it  was  formerly  used  to  include  the  wreaths  or  garlands 
worn  by  the  ancients  upon  special  occasions. 

Among  the  Greeks  and  Romans,  crowns  made  of  grass,  flowers,  twigs  of  laurel, 
oak,  olive  and  so  forth,  and  later  of  gold,  were  made  use  of  as  honors  in  athletic 
contests,  as  rewards  for  military  valor,  and  at  feasts,  funerals  and  so  forth. 

It  is,  however,  with  the  eastern  diadem  rather  than  with  the  classic  corona  that 
the  crown,  as  a  symbol  of  royalty,  is  connected;  indeed,  it  was  only  introduced  as 
such  a  symbol  by  Alexander  the  Great,  who  followed  the  Persian  usage.  Antony  wore 
a  crown  in  Egypt,  and  the  Roman  emperors  also  wore  crowns  of  various  forms,  from 
the  plain  golden  fillet  to  the  radiated  or  rayed  crown. 

In  modern  states  they  were  also  of  various  forms  until  heralds  devised  a  regular 

series  to  mark  the  grades   of  rank  from   the 
imperial  crown  to  the  baron's  coronet. 

The  English  crown  has  been  gradually  built 
up  from  the  plain  circlet  with  four  trefoil  heads 
worn  by  William  the  Conqueror.  This  form  was 
elaborated  and  jeweled,  and  finally  arched  in 
with  jeweled  bands  surmounted  by  the  cross 
and  scepter.  As  at  present  existing,  the  crown 
of  England  is  a  gold  circle,  adorned  with  pearls 
and  precious  stones,  having  alternately  four 
Maltese  crosses  and  four  fleur-de-lis.  From  the 
top  of  the  crosses  rise  imperial  arches,  closing 
under  a  mound  and  cross.  The  whole  covers 
a  crimson  velvet  cap  with  an  ermine  border. 

The  crown  of  Charlemagne,  which  is  pre- 
served in  the  imperial  treasury  of  Vienna,  is 
composed  of  eight  plates  of  gold,  four  large  and 
four  small,  connected  by  hinges.  The  large 
plates  are  studded  with  precious  stones,  the 
front  one  being  surmounted  with  a  cross;  the  smaller  ones,  placed  alternately  with 
these,  are  ornamented  with  enamels  representing  Solomon,  David,  Hezekiah  and 
Isaiah,  and  Christ  seated  between  two  flaming  seraphim. 

The  Austrian  crown  is  a  sort  of  cleft  tiara,  having  in  the  middle  a  semicircle  of 
gold  supporting  a  mound  and  cross;  the  tiara  rests  on  a  circle  with  pendants  like 
those  of  a  miter. 

The  royal  crown  of  France  is  a  circle  ornamented  with  eight  fleur-de-lis,  from 
which  rise  as  many  quarter-circles  closing  under  a  double  fleur-de-lis.  The  triple 
crown  of  the  popes  is  more  commonly  called  the  tiara. 

Why  do  Lobsters  Change  Colors? 

Before  a  lobster  is  cooked  he  is  green,  that  being  the  color  of  the  rocks  around 
which  he  lives  on  the  bottom  of  the  ocean.  However,  as  soon  as  a  lobster  is  placed 
in  boiling  water  his  shell  changes  from  green  to  red.  This  is  due  to  a  certain  chemical 
substance  contained  in  the  shell  which  acts  in  that  way  when  boiled. 

How~do  Fishes  Swim? 

The  fish  is  entirely  surrounded  by  water  which  exerts  an  equal  pressure  on  all 
sides.  When  the  fish  moves  its  tail,  or  makes  any  movement  at  all,  he  moves  in  the 
water.  Of  course,  by  moving  his  tail  from  side  to  side  he  propels  himself  forward  and 
by  bending  his  tail  he  goes  in  the  direction  in  which  it  is  bent. 


CROWNS 


1. 


Crown    of    England.       2. 

35.FImtfal°  c™' 
magne's). 


Russian 


WHERE  DO  PEARLS  COME  FROM 385 

Where  do  Pearls  Come  From?* 

Below  the  surface  of  the  ocean,  there's  a  strange,  enchanted  world.  Living  in 
the  midst  of  its  grandeur  are  most  marvelous  and  delicate  creatures  that  ceaselessly 
toil  to  strew  the  ocean's  bed  with  lustrous  gems — pearls. 

Nature  provides  for  the  denizens  of  the  deep  that  make  these  beautiful  gems. 
The  ocean  pearl  oyster  or  bivalve  (avicula  margaritifera)  and  fresh  water  mussel  (unio 
margaritifera)  have  wonderful  homes — their  shells.  Coarse,  rough,  rugged,  often 
distorted  on  the  outside,  within  they  are  lined  with  smooth,  softly-glowing,  iridescent 
"mother  of  pearl."  The  membrane,  attaching  the  bivalve  to  its  shell,  extracts  lime 
from  the  water,  building  the  shell  from  the  inside  outward  in  successive  layers, 
preserving  the  finest  nacreous  secretions  for  the  smooth  inside  lining,  thus  protecting 
its  delicate  body. 

In  this  comfortable  home  the  mollusk  is  contented,  but  an  enemy  sometimes 
attacks  it  by  boring  through  its  hard  shell.  Leucodore,  clione  and  other  borers, 
parasitic  or  domiciliary  worms  work  into  the  shell,  and  instinctively  the  protecting 
nacreous  fluid  envelops  the  intruder.  This  is  the  birth  of  the  pearl.  The  intruder, 
now  covered  entirely  with  the  pearl-nacre,  is  constantly  rolled  and  lapped  about,  and 
successive  layers  of  nacre  are  applied  until  in  a  few  years  a  pearl  of  great  size  and 
value  is  formed  and  awaits  the  hardy,  daring  pearl  fisher. 

Pearls  were  the  first  gems  discovered  and  used  as  ornaments  in  prehistoric  ages. 
Found  in  their  natural  state  in  utmost  perfection,  needing  no  cutting  nor  polishing, 
these  glowing  beads  of  the  sea  were  the  first  baubles  of  savages,  tribes  and  nations. 
Today  the  pearl  is  the  favored  gem  of  those  who  are  surfeited  with  valuable  jewels. 
It  is  essentially  a  gem  for  the  wealthy.  The  connoisseur,  accustomed  to  the  possession 
of  jewels,  finds  in  its  soft  luster  a  grandeur  above  that  of  all  the  sparkling  stones. 

Fancy  pearls  include  all  those  of  decided  color,  having  a  rare  and  beautiful  tint. 
"White  pearls"  include  pure  white  and  white  slightly  tinted  witn  pink,  blue,  green 
or  yellow.  Of  these  colored  white  pearls,  the  delicate,  lightly-tinted,  pink  pearl  of 
fine  color  and  luster  known  as  "rose"  is  most  beautiful.  Every  white  pearl  is  classi- 
fied according  to  its  respective  tint  and  thus  its  price  is  determined,  the  values  ranging 
in  the  order  named  above,  from  highest  for  pure  white,  to  lowest  for  yellowish-white. 

What  is  Cork? 

Cork  is  the  outer  bark  of  a  species  of  oak  which  grows  in  Spain,  Portugal  and 
other  southern  parts  of  Europe  and  in  the  north  of  Africa.  The  tree  is  distinguished 
by  the  great  thickness  and  sponginess  of  its  bark,  and  by  the  leaves  being  evergreen, 
oblong,  somewhat  oval,  downy  underneath,  and  waved. 

The  outer  bark  falls  off  of  itself  if  let  alone,  but  for  commercial  purposes  it  is 
stripped  off  when  judged  sufficiently  matured,  this  being  when  the  tree  has  reached 
the  age  of  from  fifteen  to  thirty  years.  In  the  course  of  eight  or  nine  years,  or  even 
less,  the  same  tree  will  yield  another  supply  of  cork  of  better  quality,  and  the  removal 
of  this  outer  bark  is  said  to  be  beneficial,  the  trees  thus  stripped  reaching  the  age 
of  150  years  or  more. 

The  bark  is  removed  by  a  kind  of  ax,  parallel  cuts  being  carried  around  the  tree 
transversely  and  united  by  others  in  a  longitudinal  direction,  so  as  to  produce  oblong 
sheets  of  bark.  Care  must  be  taken  not  to  cut  into  the  inner  bark,  or  the  tree  would 
be  killed.  The  pieces  of  cork  are  flattened  out  by  heat  or  by  weights,  and  are 
slightly  charred  on  the  surface  to  close  the  pores. 

Cork  is  light,  impervious  to  water,  and  by  pressure  can  be  greatly  reduced  in 
bulk,  returning  again  to  its  original  size.  These  qualities  render  it  peculiarly  service- 
able for  the  stopping  of  vessels  of  different  kinds,  for  floats,  buoys,  swimming-belts  or 
jackets,  artificial  limbs,  etc.  Corks  for  bottles  are  cut  either  by  hand  or  by  means  of 
a  machine.  The  best  corks  are  cut  across  the  grain. 

31        *  Courtesy  of  Mr.  Charles  L.  Trout. 


The  Story  in  a  Giant  Cannon 

Origin  of  the  Cannon. 

The  shotgun  and  rifle,  the  familiar  weapons  of  the  sportsman  and  the  foot- 
soldier,  are  not  the  ancestors  of  the  cannon,  as  might  be  surmised.  On  the  contrary, 
the  cannon  was  the  predecessor  of  the  musket  and  its  successors.  The  rifle,  however, 
antedated  the  rifled  cannon,  the  type  of  modern  artillery.  We  do  not  know  when 
cannon  first  appeared,  but  it  may  have  been  soon  after  the  discovery  of  gunpowder 


THREE-INCH  FIELD  GUN  UNDER  TEST  AT  FORT  RILEY,  KANSAS 

In  the  trials  conducted  by  the  Board  of  Ordnance  and  Fortification  of  the  United 
States  Army.  This  gun  and  carriage,  complete,  weighs  2,020  pounds.  Charge,  18.5 
ounces  of  smokeless  powder.  Weight  of  projectile,  15  pounds.  Muzzle  velocity,  1,800- 
foot  seconds. 

Courtesy  of  the  Bethlehem  Steel  Co. 

in  Europe.  This  explosive  seems  to  have  been  known  in  China  long  before  knowledge 
of  it  reached  the  west,  but  we  do  not  know  to  what  extent  it  was  developed  arid 
used  in  that  country. 

The  earliest  cannon  of  which  we  have  any  knowledge  were  clumsy  contrivances, 
at  first  wider  at  the  mouth  than  at  the  chamber,  and  made  of  wood,  and  later  of  iron 
bars,  hooped  together  with  iron  rings,  a  system  of  the  same  type  as  that  now  in  use 
in  the  wire-wound  cannon.  They  at  first  seem  to  have  fired  balls  of  stone,  iron  balls 
coming  later.  A  doubtful  statement  exists  to  the  effect  that  cannon  were  used  at 


THE  STORY  IN  A  GIANT  CANNON 387 

the  siege  of  Belgrade  in  1073,  and  it  is  said  that  Edward  III  used  them  against  the 
Scotch  in  1327.  Other  dates  of  their  use  are  1338  and  1346,  in  which  latter  year 
Edward  III  employed  them  against  the  French  at  Crecy.  For  this  we  have  the 
authority  of  Froissart.  They  were  known  under  the  varied  names  of  bombards1, 
serpentines,  etc.  Twelve  cannon  cast  by  Louis  VII  were  named  after  the  twelve 
peers  of  France,  and  Charles  V  gave  twelve  others  the  names  of  the  twelve  apostles. 
Other  titles  came  later  into  general  use,  the  royal  or  carthorne,  carrying  48  pounds; 
the  culv  nu,  18  pounds;  the  demi-culverin,  9  pounds;  the  basilisk,  48;  the  siren. 


Weight  of  gun  and  mechanism,  675  pounds.  Length  of  gun,  74.35  inches  (25  cali- 
bers). Weight  of  projectile,  13  pounds.  Travel  of  projectile  in  bore,  62.9  inches 
(20.97  calibers).  Weight  of  charge,  18  ounces  of  smokeless  powder.  Muzzle  velocity, 
1,650-foot  seconds  Muzzle  energy,  246-foot  tons.  Weight  of  gun,  carriage,  limber, 
drag  ropes,  tools,  etc.,  and  60  rounds  01  ammunition,  complete,  3,420  pounds.  The 
carriage  and  limber  have  each  two  removable  interchangeable  ammunition  boxes  for 
12  rounds  each,  with  a  box  for  12  rounds  below  the  axle  of  the  limber. 

Courtesy  of  the  Bethlehem  Steel  Co. 

60,  etc.  In  still  later  times  cannon  became  known  by  the  weight  and  the  balls  they 
carried,  6-pounders,  12-pounders,  etc.  But  they  are  now  usually  called  after  the 
size  of  their  bores,  .as  6-inch,  8-inch,  or  12-inch  cannon.  The  oldest  example  still 
in  existence  is  "Mons  Meg,"  preserved  at  Edinburgh  Castle.  This  is  one  of  the 
iron-bar  type,  hooped  by  iron  rings.  It  is  supposed  to  have  been  used  by  James  II 
of  Scotland,  at  the  siege  of  Threave  Castle  in  1455. 

Louis  VI  used  bombards  of  great  length  and  power  against  the  Flemish  in  1477, 
while  as  early  as  1401  bronze  cannon  had  been  cast  in  several  cities  of  West  Prussia. 
Iron  cannon  were  not  cast  until  near  the  end  of  that  century.  Coming  down  to 
the  seventeenth  century,  we  are  told  of  the  great  Bijapur  cast-iron  gun,  the  "Lord 
of  the  Plain,"  cast  by  the  Mogul  emperor  Auremgzebe  or  by  his  foes  the  Mahrattas. 
This  huge  gun  was  14  feet  long,  28  inches  bore,  and  fired  a  ball  of  1,600  pounds  weight. 
Smooth-bore  cannon  and  mortars  of  cast-iron  and  bronze  are  still  retained  in  some 
fortresses,  though  rifled  cannon  are  the  only  type  now  made.  As  late  as  1864  smooth- 
bore 100-  and  150-pounder  wrought-iron  guns  were  made  for  the  British  navy  and 


388 


THE"  STORY  IN  A  GIANT  CANNON 


THE  STORY  IN  A  GIANT  CANNON 


389 


390 


THE  STORY  IN  A  GIANT  CANNON 


'THE  STORY  IN  A  GIANT  CANNON 


391 


Ill 


392 


THE  STORY  IN  A  GIANT  CANNON 


a  few  bronze  rifled  guns  were  made  in  1870  for  service  in  India,  but  all  such  guns 
are  now  obsolete. 

The  development  of  the  rifle  from  the  old  smooth-bore  musket,  by  cutting 
grooves  or  channels  in  the  form  of  a  screw  in  the  interior  surface,  was  found  so 
advantageous  in  increase  of  precision  of  aim  and  length  of  range,  that  the  rifling  of 
cannon  in  tune  followed  and  is  now  universally  used.  Breech  loading  has  also  replaced 
muzzle  loading,  another  vast  advantage  in  the  use  of  artillery.  A  form  of  breech- 
loading  cannon  w«.s  introduced  in  the  sixteenth  century,  but  the  advantageous  use 


THREE-INCH  .HELD  GUN,  LONG  IIECOIL  CARRIAGE  AND  LIMBER 

Weight  of  gun,  carriage  and  limber  complete,  including  36  rounds  of  ammunition, 
4,200  pounds;  ground  clearance,  22.5  inches.     Seats  are  provided  on  axle  of  carriage  for 
two  gunners  in  transportation,  one  of  whom  operates  the  road  brake. 
(Courtesy  of  the  Bethlehem  Steel  Co. 

of  this  device  is  of  late  invention.  An  important  result  of  these  changes  is  the  use 
of  elongated  instead  of  round  balls,  this  permitting  of  the  employment  of  much  heavier 
projectiles  for  the  same  width  of  bore. 

Modern  Cannon. 

Until  1888  the  largest  cannon  in  use  was  the  119-ton  Krupp,  made  in  1884  for 
Italy;  but  in  1888-90  the  same  house  produced  a  135-ton  gun  for  Cronstadt.  The 
heaviest  British  gun  at  that  time  was  of  111-ton  weight.  This  threw  a  projectile 
of  1,800  pounds  with  a  muzzle  velocity  of  2,216  feet  per  second.  But  there  later 
came  a  reaction  in  favor  of  lighter  guns  and  quick  firers.  The  heavy  cannon  of 
recent  times  are  not  cast,  as  of  old,  but  are  made  of  forged-steel  by  what  is  known 
as  the  building-up  process.  The  different  parts  of  these  are  called  the  tube,  jacket* 
hoops,  locking  rings,  trunnion  rings,  wire  winding,  etc. 


THE  STORY  IN  A  GIANT  CANNON 


393 


Cannons  are  subject  to  great  stress  in  firing,  this  being  of  two  kinds.  One  is 
the  longitudinal  stress,  acting  in  the  direction  of  the  length  and  tending  to  pull  the 
muzzle  away  from  the  breech.  The  other  is  the  circumferential  or  tangential  stress, 
which  tends  to  split  the  gun  open  in  lines  parallel  to  the  axis  of  the  bore.  These 
stresses  are  results  of  the  longitudinal  and  radial  pressures  of  the  gas  developed  by 
the  ignition  and  explosion  of  the  powder.  Such  destructive  forces  have  to  be 


THREE-INCH  MOUNTAIN  GUN  AND  CARRIAGE 

Weight  of  gun,  206^  pounds.  Length  of  gun,  37.25  inches  (12.4  calibers).  Weight 
of  projectile,  12  pounds.  Travel  of  projectile  in  bore,  27.55  inches  (9.2  calibers).  Weight 
of  charge,  12.5  ounces  of  smokeless  powder.  Muzzle  velocity,  1,224-foot  seconds.  Muz- 
zle energy,  123-foot  tons.  Weight  of  gun  and  carriage  complete,  726  pounds.  This  gun 
and  carriage  break  up  into  four  loads  of  approximately  200  pounds  each.  The  equipment 
carries  16  complete  rounds  of  ammunition  with  it,  which  are  divided  equally  among  four 
boxes.  The  saddles  are  so  made  that  the  load  will  go  on  any  saddle. 

Courtesy  of  the  Bethlehem  Steel  Co. 

guarded  against  in  the  building  of  a  cannon  and  have  led  to  a  great  development 
over  the  old-time  casting  processes.  As  long  as  projectile  velocities  under  1,500 
feet  per  second  were  employed  cannons  cast  in  one  piece  sufficed,  but  when  greater 
velocities  were  sought,  the  pressure  grew  so  extreme  that  no  cast  or  forged  metal 
tube  would  stand  the  strain. 

How  Cannon  are  Now  Made. 

It  was  found  that  the  inner  surface  of  the  tube  stretched  more  than  the  outer 
surface,  and  that  after  the  inner  surface  had  been  stretched  to  its  limit  of  elasticity 
the  outer  part  failed  to  add  to  its  strength,  so  that  further  thickness  was  of  no  benefit. 


394 


THE  STORY  IN  A  GIANT  CANNON 


To  do  away  with  this  condition  cannon  were  constructed  on  the  principle  of  varying 
elasticity,  the  metal  with  the  greatest  elongation  within  its  elastic  limit  being  placed 
next  to  the  bore,  yet  in  high-powered  guns  this  system  failed  to  yield  the  result 
d"fiired  and  it  was  replaced  by  what  is  known  as  the  initial  tension  system.  This 


RAPID-FIRE  GUN 

Six-inch  rapid-fire  gun  equipped  with  patented  two-handed  elevating  gear,  con- 
sisting of  two  hand  wheels  on  opposite  ends  of  the  same  shaft,  the  handles  being  180 
degrees  apart.  The  pointer  uses  both  hands  in  elevating  and  depressing  the  gun.  The 
electric  firing  trigger  A  is  worked  by  the  index  finger  of  the  right  hand  without  releasing 
the  handle.  There  is  a  second  firing  handle  B  attached  to  the  slide,  for  firing  either 
electrically  or  percussively. 

Courtesy  of  the  Bethlehem  Steel  Co. 

comprised  two  methods:    the  plain  built-up  gun  and  the  wire-wound  gun.     In  the 
latter  certain  parts  of  the  gun  were  wrapped  with  wire  in  the  form  of  a  ribbon. 

Built-Up  and  Wire- Wound  Guns. 

A  built-up  gun  is  made  of  several  layers  of  forged  steel.  The  parts  of  such  a 
gun  are  known  as  the  liner,  the  tube,  the  jacket  and  the  hoops.  The  liner  is  a  single 
piece  which  extends  the  length  of  the  bore  and  is  intended  to  contain  the  rifling  and 
the  powder  chamber.  This  is  inclosed  by  the  tube,  which  is  also  in  one  piece,  sur- 
rounding the  liner  throughout  its  length.  Outside  this  is  the  jacket,  made  in  two 
pieces  and  shrunk  on  the  tube.  Over  the  jacket  lie  the  hoops,  six  or  seven  of  these 
being  used  in  a  big  gun.  Like  the  jacket,  these  also  are  shrunk  on.  All  these  parts 
are  made  of  the  finest  quality  of  open-hearth  steel. 

These  pieces  are  prepared  with  the  utmost  care  to  prevent  any  defective  material 
entering  into  the  make-up  of  the  gun.  After  the  parts  are  put  together  a  thorough 


THE  STORY  IN  A  GIANT  CANNON 


395 


o      i> 

!l 

3  .9 

55      8 

!I 


~" 

o  ai 


3% THE  STORY  IN  A  GIANT  CANNON 


THE  STORY  IN  A  GIANT  CANNON 


397 


.2.2 


398 


THE  STORY  IN  A  GIANT  CANNON 


It  Li 


GIANT  GUNS — THEIR  MUZZLE-ENERGY,  PROJECTILES,  AND  PENETRATING  POWERS 

The  British  13.5,  which  was  known  as  the  12-inch-A  until  the  "Lion"  was  launched, 
has  a  length  of  45  calibers,  and  a  muzzle-energy  ten  per  cent  greater  than  that  of  the 
50-caliber  12-inch  of  1909  and  1910.  It  may  be  noted  that  the  caliber  is  the  diameter 
of  the  bore  of  a  gun.  The  statement  that  a  gun  has  a  length  of  45  calibers,  for 
example,  implies  that  the  gun  is  forty-five  times  the  bore's  diameter.  Thus  a  12-inch 
gun  of  45  calibers  is  45  feet  long. 


THE  STORY  IN  A  GIANT  CANNON 


390 


forging  follows,  either  by  use  of  hammer  or  press,  the  latter  being  now  used  in  prefer- 
ence. The  usual  practice  in  forging  is  to  continue  it  until  the  ingot  is  decreased 
to  one-half  its  original  thickness  and  is  within  two  inches  of  the  desired  diameter 
of  the  finished  work.  It  is  then  annealed  with  great  care  to  relieve  the  strains  set 
up  in  the  metal  by  the  forging  and  next  goes  to  the  machine  shop  to  be  rough  bored 
and  turned.  The  final  boring  takes  place  after  a  second  annealing.  The  above  is 


ORDNANCE  PROVING  GROUND 

View  showing  smoke  cone  occurring  during   the  proof  firing  of  a  twelve-inch  gun  with 

brown  powder. 

Courtesy  of  the  Bethlehem  Steel  Co. 

only  a  rapid  sketch  of  the  total  process,  in  which  elaborate  care  is  taken  to  prevent 
imperfection  of  any  kind. 

In  a  wire-wound  gun  an  inner  tube  of  steel  is  thoroughly  wrapped  by  successive 
layers  of  ribbon  wire,  each  layer  being  wound  with  wire  at  a  different  tension.  This 
type  of  gun  is  preferred  by  foreign  manufacturers,  but  within  the  United  States 
the  built-up  system  is  in  higher  favor  and  is  almost  exclusively  employed.  The 
makers  of  the  wire-wound  cannon  claim  for  it  a  positive  soundness  of  material  impos- 
sible to  secure  in  a  built-up  gun,  and  that  it  has  greater  firmness  of  material  and 
superior  tangential  strength.  But  with  this  come  certain  disadvantages,  a  notable 
one  being  a  lack  of  rigidity  in  the  longitudinal  direction,  this  tending  to  increase 
the  "droop "of  the  muzzle  and  give  a  certain  "whip"  to  the  piece  when  fired  that 
reduces  accuracy.  This  and  other  disadvantages  have  given  the  built-up  guns 
general  preference  in  this  country,  they  being  found  strong  enough  to  bear  any  pres- 
sure desirable  in  eervice.  In  addition  they  are  much  cheaper  to  build  then  the 
wire-wound  guns. 


100 


THE  STORY  IN  A  GIANT  CANNON 


Modern  heavy  guns  are  made  of  medium  open-hearth  carbon  steel,  forged  as 
stated.  The  liner  and  tube  are  then  placed  upright  in  an  assembling  pit,  the  jacket 
and  hoops  shrunk  on,  and  the  finishing  work  done,  as  above  said,  the  breech  mechanism 
being  finally  fitted.  Within  recent  years  there  has  been  a  steady  increase  in  the 
size  and  range  of  cannon,  until  an  immense  size  and  weight  have  been  attained. 
For  naval  purposes  the  14-inch  gun  is  the  largest  now  used  in  American  battleships, 
but  in  the  United  States  coast  defense  forts,  16-inch  guns  are  installed.  England 
IIMS  oquipped  several  of  her  latest  battleships  with  15-inch  guns  and  other  nations 


FOUR-INCH  FIFTY  CALIBER  RAPID-FIRE  GUN  ON  .PEDESTAL  MOUNT 
Extraction  of  cartridge  case  by  opening   of   breech   mechanism.     Weight   of  gun, 
6,170  pounds.     Length  of  gun,   205   inches   (51.2  calibers).     Weight   of  projectile,   33 
pounds      Travel  of  projectile  in  bore,  165.6  inches  (41.4  calibers).     Weight  of  charge, 
15  pounds  of  smokeless  powder.     Muzzle  velocity,  2,900-foot  seconds.     Muzzle  energy, 
1  928-foot  tons.     Weight  of  mount  with  shield,   9,470  pounds.     Thickness  of  shield,  2 
inches  of  nickel  steel.     Gun  equipped  with  telescopic  and  night  sights  and  with  ele 
and  percussion  pull-off  firing  gear. 
Courtesy  of  the  Bethlehem  Steel  Co. 

are  following  in  the  same  direction.  In  recent  great  battleships  four  turrets  are 
used,  each  carrying  three  of  these  great  guns,  giving  a  broadside  of  twelve  of  these 
monster  weapons  of  war.  Of  the  three  guns,  the  middle  one  is  raised  above  the  line 
of  the  others.  A  battleship  thus  armed  'is  able  to  fire  six  guns  ahead  and  six  astern 
by  raising  the  second  and  third  turrets  so  as  to  fire  over  the  others. 

Military  cannon  are  divided  into  three  classes,  based  upon  the  length  of  caliber, 
and  technically  known  as  guns,  mortars  and  howitzers.  In  guns  the  length  is  rela- 
tively great,  in  mortars  relatively  small,  compared  to  their  calibers.  Howitzers 
form  a  class  between  guns  and  mortars  in  length.  The  field  guns  of  the  American 
army,  are  the  3.6-inch  breech-loading  mortars,  and  the  3.6-inch  heavy  and  6.2-wch 


THE  STORY  IN  A  GIANT  CANNON 


401 


light  guns.  The  siege  guns  in  the  service  are  the  5-inch  siege  guns,  the  7-inch  howitzer, 
and  the  7-inch  mortar.  The  coast  defense  artillery  consists  of  the  8-,  10-,  12-  and 
16-inch  guns  and  the  12-inch  mortars.  In  the  recent  European  war  very  heavy 
cannon  were  used  for  field  service,  pieces  of  the  size  usually  placed  in  forts  being 


FLUID  COMPRESSION  PLANT 

While  still  in  a  molten  condition  in  the  mold,  the  steel  used  in 
manufacturing  guns  and  shafting  is  subjected  to  hydraulic  pressure 
until  the  ingot  has  cooled,  thus  insuring  the  solidity  of  the  metal.  The 
upper  head  of  the  compressor  weighs  125  tons,  and  the  lower  one, 
including  the  cylinder  through  which  the  hydraulic  pressure  is  applied 
135  tons. 

Courtesy  of  the  Bethlehem  Steel  Co. 

drawn  to  the  field  by  powerful  tractors,  set  on  concrete  platforms  and  used  in  attacks 
on  fortified  cities.  It  was  through  the  use  of  such  ordnance  that  the  German  army 
so  easily  reduced  the  strongly  fortified  Belgian  cities. 

The  range  of  these  giant  cannon  is  enormous  and  their  destructive  power  great, 
this  being  added  to  by  the  fact  that  the  explosive  shell  has  replaced  the  solid  round 
shot  of  old-time  gunnery.  A  14-inch  gun  of  45  caliber  can  discharge  a  1,400-pound 


402 


THE   STORY   IN  A  GIANT   CANNON 


AMMUNITION.       (Lee  i  a-  o  41C.J 


TWO-HANDED  ELEVATING  GEAR.*    (See  page  410.) 


*  Illustration  by  courtesy  of  the  Bethlehem  Steel  Co. 


THE  STORY  IN  A  GIANT  CANNON 


403 


RANGE  FINDER  AND  PREDICTOR;  HOME  AND  DISTANT  STATION  INSTRUMENTS.* 

(See  page  410.) 


r 


ARMOR  PIERCING  PROJECTILES,  CAPPED  AND  UNCAPPED.*     (See  page  410.) 


Illustrations  by  courtesy  of  the  Bethlehem  Steel  Co. 


404 


THE  STORY  IN  A  GIANT  CANNON 


CONTINUOUS   READING    RANGE  ,\  A7IMUTM 
FINDER  ANO  PRtDCTOR 
CHART    ATTACHMENT 


RANGE  FINDER  AND  CHABT  ATTACHMENT*.     (See  page  410.) 


ElGHTEEN-INCH. 


*  Dluatratioos  by  courtesy  of  the  Bethlehem  Steel  Co. 


THE  STORY  IN  A  GIANT  CANNON 


405 


FIRING  GEAR  FOR  GUNS.*     (See  page  410.) 


1 


FUSES.*     (See  page  410.) 


*  Illustrations  by  courtesy  of  the  Bethlehem  Steel  Co* 


406 


THE  STORY  IN  A  GIANT  CANNON 


projectile  at  a  muzzle  velocity  of  2,600  feet  per  second.  If  we  rompiire  this  with  a 
locomotive  going  at  the  speed  of  sixty  miles  an  hour,  we  have  in  the  latter  a  speed  of 
eighty-eight  feet  per  second  to  compare  with  the  2,600  feet  per  second  of  the 
cannon  ball.  From  this  we  can  well  conjecture  the  vast  speed  with  which  the 
latter  moves,  its  enormous  range  and  vast  powers  of  destruction. 

As  facts  are  better  than  theories,  it  will  be  of  interest  to  adduce  a  recent  example 
of  gunnery  of  a  most  illuminating  type,  but  as  regards  distance  and  remarkable 
acenripv  of  aim.  In  September,  1916,  the  American  battleship  "Pennsylvania,1' 


THREE-INCH  HORSE  ARTILLERY  GUN,  LONG  RECOIL  CARRIAGE  AND  JLIMBER 

Length  of  gun,  85  inches  (28  calibers).  Weight  of  projectile,  12  pounds.  Travel 
of  projectile  in  bore,  74.65  inches  (24.88  calibers).  Weight  of  charge,  17.1  ounces  of 
smokeless  powder.  Muzzle  velocity,  1,750-foot  seconds.  Muzzle  energy,  255-foot  tons. 
Weight  of  gun,  carriage  and  limber,  containing  36  rounds  of  ammunition,  3,355  pounds. 
Ground  clearance,  18  inches. 

Courtesy  of  the  Bethlehem  Steel  Co. 

armed  with  a  main  battery  of  twelve  14-inch  guns,  fired  these  simultaneously  at  a 
target  in  the  Chesapeake  22,000  yards,  or  more  than  twelve  miles,  away.  The  target 
was  the  sunken  hulk  of  the  "San  Marcos/'  formerly  the  battleship  "Texas,"  which 
for  several  years  had  been  used  for  similar  purposes.  As  the  target  was  invisible 
to  the  gunners  it  was  hardly  to  be  expected  that  any  of  the  shots  should  fall  near 
the  target.  But  the  extraordinary  result  appeared  that  five  of  these  twelve  shots 
struck  the  hulk.  As  each  of  these  projectiles  weighed  1,400  pounds  any  battleship 
receiving  such  a  broadside  would  probably  have  gone  promptly  to  the  bottom.  The 
result,  which  has  never  before  been  equaled  in  accuracy,  sufficiently  attests  the 
remarkable  proficiency  in  range-finding  that  modern  engineers  have  developed. 


THE  STORY  IN  A  GIANT  CANNON 


407 


As  for  the  penetrating  powers  of  such  huge  shot  we  may  take  the  15-inch  gun, 
the  type  of  the  largest  guns  in  our  fortifications  and  which  is  claimed  to  be  able  to 
pierce  sixteen  inches  of  armor  at  a  range  of  18,000  yards  and  ten  inches  at  a  range  of 
20,000  yards.  A  notable  example  of  this  took  place  on  September  15,  1916,  at  the 
proving  grounds  at  Indian  Head,  on  the  Potomac  River,  when  a  16-inch,  2,100- 
pound,  solid  steel  shell,  said  to  be  the  first  ever  fired  from  a  naval  gun  of  that  caliber, 
with  a  small  charge  of  explosive,  went  through  a  plate  of  armor,  penetrated  a  thick 
sand  backing,  and  continued  its  course,  striking  the  house  of  an  employee  of  the 


PATENTED  CHAIN  RAMMER 

As  applied  to  loading  twelve-inch  turret  guns.  The  space  occupied  by  this  rammer 
in  the  rear  of  the  gun  is  less  than  one  foot,  with  a  possible  ramming  stroke  of  fifteen 
feet.  The  rammer  being  attached  to  the  gun's  cradle  or  slide,  moves  with  the  gun  in 
elevation  and  depression.  The  ammunition  car  also  moves  with  the  gun.  Loading  can 
be  performed  while  the  gun  is  kept  in  motion  following  a  moving  target.  This  rammer 
is  stift  in  all  directions  when  extended. 

Uourtesy  of  the  Bethlehem  Steel  Co. 

proving  grounds  and  plunging  through  the  kitchen  rending  all  before  it.      This  was 
a  naval  gun,  the  largest  yet  made  for  naval  purposes. 

[n  the  make-up  of  modern  guns  the  breech-loading  mechanism  is  of  essential 
importance,  it  being  necessary  that  the  breech  should  be  capable  of  rapid  opening 
for  tne  insertion  of  the  charge  into  the  loading  chamber,  as  rapidly  closed  and  firmly 
secured  to  prevent  it  being  forced  open  by  the  reaction  of  the  discharge.  It  also 
must  fit  with  such  tightness  as  to  prevent  any  escape  of  the  gas  in  that  direction, 
and  force  it  to  exert  all  its  impelling  power  upon  the  ball.  Various  methods  are  used 
for  this  purpose,  with  the  result  that  loading  and  firing  can  be  very  quickly  and 
effectively  performed.  In  the  case  of  guns  in  fortifications,  the  disappearing  carriage 


408 


THE  STORY  IN  A  GIANT  CANNON 


is  a  highly  important  invention  of  recent  date.  By  its  aid  the  gun  is  quickly  lifted 
to  fire  over  the  walls  of  the  fort  and  is  driven  backward  by  the  force  of  its  discharge, 
sinking  to  a  place  of  safety  behind  the  walls.  This  saves  the  gun  and  its  crew,  from 
injury  by  return  fire. 

We  may  say  in  conclusion  that  the  great  European  war  was  notable  for  the 
use  of  artillery  to  an  extent  far  surpassing  its  employment  in  any  previous  war. 
This  great  conflict,  indeed,  was  very  largely  a  contest  of  gun  fire,  in  which  the  opposing 
fields  of  the  battling  armies  were  so  swept  with  shells  and  other  explosives  as  to  render 
life  impossible  on  the  open  land,  trench  digging  being  one  of  the  main  employments 
of  the  embattled  hosts.  Never  before  had  the  supreme  value  of  gunnery  in  war- 
fare been  so  fully  demonstrated. 


GEAR  WHEEL  AND  DRUM  FOR  COAL  HOISTING  PLANE 

Diameter  of  wheel,  20  feet  9^  inches;  face,  43 }/%  inches;  diameter  of  hub,  26  inches; 
number  of  teeth,  128;  pitch,  Gy&  inches;  pitch  diameter,  249.554 inches;  shipping  weight, 
108,873  pounds. 

Courtesy  of  the  Bethlehem  Steel  Co. 


THE  STORY  IN  A  GIANT  CANNON 


409 


SIX-INCH  RIBBED  CAVITY  ARMOR-PIERCING  SHELL 

Projectile  was  loaded  with  two  pounds  of  black  charcoal  powder 
and  fused  with  magazine  fuse.  Fired  at  six-inch  Krupp  hard-faced 
armor  plate.  Shell  burst  about  eight  feet  to  rear  of  plate  after  pene- 
trating the  same.  Weight  of  largest  fragment  recovered  10^  pounds. 
Average  weight  of  fragments,  2 ^  ounces.  Total  number  of  pieces 
recovered,  650. 

Courtesy  of  the  Bethlehem  Steel  Co 


410 THE  STORY  IN  A  GIANT  CANNON 

AMMUNITION.     (See  page  402.) 

Made-up  ammunition,  with  brass  cartridge  cases,  and  cast-iron  and  forged  steel  shells  and  armor- 
piercing  projectiles.  The  rounds  shown  are  as  follows:  Rounds  with  forged  steel  shell  for  one- 
pounder  gun,  for  three-pounder  gun  and  for  six-pounder  gun  respectively;  round  with  cast-iron  shell 
for  three-inch  field  gun;  round  with  capped  armor-piercing  shell  for  three-inch  fifty-caliber  rapid- 
fire  gun;  round  with  forged  steel  shell  for  four-inch  forty  caliber  rapid-fire  gun;  round  with  capped 
armor-piercing  projectiles  for  the  four-inch  and  twelve-centimeter  fifty-caliber  rapid-fire  guns 
respectively,  and  round  with  forged  shell  for  six-inch  gun. 

TWO-HANDED  ELEVATING  GEAR.     (See  page  402.) 

Method  of  obtaining  a  variable  movement  of  a  miniature  target,  corresponding  to  rolls  of  a 
vessel  of  from  1  to  10  degrees.  A  series  of  25,000  shots  were  fired  thus,  by  eight  gun  pointers,  at 
targets  corresponding  to  the  size  of  a  battleship  as  seen  at  ranges  of  1,500,  3,000,  6,000  and  9,000 
yards.  Using  a  sub-camber  rifle  rigidly  attached  to  the  muzzle  cf  the  gun  and  fired  electrically  by  the 
firing  gear  of  the  big  sun.  The  record  shows  that  under  circumstances  of  avemge  difficulty  at  sea 
(say  5  degrees  roll  antl  range  of  3,500  yards),  the  gain  in  accuracy  (increase  in  hits  with  a  given 
expenditure  of  ammunition)  is  about  25  per  cent,  and  the  gain  in  speed  of  hitting  (number  of  hits  in 
a  given  time)  is  50  per  cent,  with  the  two-hand  gear  as  compared  with  the  usual  one-hand  gear. 

RANGE  FINDER  AND  PREDICTOR;    HOME  AND  DISTANT  STATION  INSTRUMENTS.      (See  page  403.) 

Continuous  readings,  by  means  of  automatic  indicators,  of  either  the  actual  or  the  predicted 
ranges  and  azimuths  of  moving  target  at  every  instant  and  for  any  distance  from  1,000  to  15,000 
yards  and  through  an  azimuth  of  160  degrees,  are  clearly  presented  at  all  times.  The  ranges  are 
read  in  scales  of  10-yard  steps,  and  the  azimuths  for  each  .01  degree  are  traversed.  The  corrected 
ranges  for  the  various  guns  served  by  the  instruments,  either  actual  or  automatically  predicted  for 
any  interval  of  time,  are  constantly  communicated  to  the  various  guns  whose  fire  is  being  directed 
by  the  observation  instrument. 

ARMOR-PIERCING  PROJECTILES,  CAPPED  AND  UNCAPPED.     (See  page  403.) 

The  projectiles  shown  are  a  three-inch  capped,  a  four-inch  capped,  a  five-inch  and  a  six-inch 
uncapped,  eight-inch  uncapped  and  capped,  ten-inch  uncapped  and  capped  and  twelve-inch  capped. 

RANGE  FINDER  WITH  CHART  ATTACHMENT.     (See  page  404.) 

The  chart  is  drawn  on  the  lower  and  ground  side  of  a  ground  glass  plate.  A  pencil  point  is 
.ecured  to  moving  cross-head  and  marks  position  of  target  on  ground  glass,  tracing  movement 
of  same  thereon.  The  pillar  mounting  allows  of  ready  removal  of  chart  attachment  when  it  is 
lot  desired  to  use  the  same. 

ElGHTEEN-INCH,    THIRTY-CALIBER   TORPEDO   GUN.       (See  page   404.) 

Weight,  134,000  pounds.  Length  of  gun,  528  inches.  Weight  of  projectile,  2,000  pounds. 
Travel  of  projectile  in  bore,  432.4  inches  (24.02  calibers).  Weight  of  charge,  310  pounds  of  smoke- 
Ij3ss  powder.  Muzzle  velocity,  2,000-foot  seconds.  Muzzle  energy,  55,500-foot  tons.  Greatest 
diameter  of  gun,  45  inches.  Its  breech  mechanism  was  opened  and  closed  by  one  man  in  nine 
seconds.  It  was  also  opened  without  great  effort  by  a  boy  twelve  years  of  age. 

FIRING  GEAR  FOR  GUNS.     (See  page  405.) 

External  firing  gear  for  guns  using  loose  ammunition.  The  primer  is  inserted  in  the  firing  gear 
when  the  breech  mechanism  is  open,  but  is  held  at  an  angle  to  the  lighting  vent  until  the  final  locking 
motion  of  the  breech  block,  making  it  impossible  to  light  the  gun's  charge  before  the  breech  mechan- 
ism is  pafely  closed,  even  if  the  primer  should  be  prematurely  exploded.  The  primer  case  is  auto- 
matically ejected  by  the  opening  of  the  breech  mechanism. 

FUSES.     (See  page  405.) 

The  fuses  shown  from  left  to  right  are:  minor  caliber  percussion  fuse,  minor  caliber  magazine 
percussion  fuse,  major  caliber  percussion  fuse,  major  caliber  magazine  percussion  fuse,  triple,  double 
and  single  train  time  fuses.  The  time  fuses  all  contain  a  percussion  element  to  insure  their  exploding 
on  impact  if  not  previously  exploded.  No  special  tool  is  required  for  setting  these  fuses.  They  are 
made,  up  to  27  seconds  burning  time  for  guns  of  2,600-foot  seconds  muzzle  velocity,  and  up  to 
36  seconds  for  mortars  and  guns  of  1,400-foot  secondi  muzzle  velocity. 


WHAT  IS  A  DEEP-SEA  DIVER'S  DRESS  LIKE        411 


What  is  a  Deep-Sea  Diver's  Dress  Like? 

There  are  now  two  general  types  of  deep-sea  diving  equipment:  an  India  rubber 
dress,  covering  the  entire  body,  except  the  head,  which  is  covered  by  a  helmet,  and 
another  apparatus  which  is  constructed  entirely  of  metal. 

The  India  rubber  dress  has  a  neck-piece  or  breast-plate,  fitted  with  a  segmental 
screw  bayonet  joint,  to  which  the  head-piece  or  helmet,  the  neck  of  which  has  a 
corresponding  screw,  can  be  attached  or  removed.  The  helmet  has  usually  three 
eyeholes,  covered  with  strong  glass,  and  protected  by  guards.  Air  is  supplied  by 
means  of  a  flexible  tube  which  enters  the  helmet  and  communicates  with  an  air 
pump  above.  To  allow  of  the  escape  of  the  used 
air  there  is  sometimes  another  flexible  tube, 
which  is  led  from  the  back  part  of  the  helmet 
to  the  surface  of  the  water.  But  in  the  more 
improved  forms  of  the  dress,  the  breathed  air 
escapes  by  a  valve  so  constructed  as  to  prevent 
water  from  getting  in,  though  it  lets  the  air  out. 
Leaden  weights  are  attached  to  the  diver,  and 
his  shoes  are  weighted,  that  he  may  be  able  to 
descend  a  ladder,  walk  about  below,  etc. 

Communication  can  be  carried  on  with  those 
above  by  means  of  a  cord  running  between  the 
diver  and  the  attendants;  or  he  may  converse 
with  them  through  a  speaking  tube  or  a  tele- 
phonic apparatus.  One  form  of  diving-dress 
makes  the  diver  independent  of  any  connection 
with  persons  above  the  water.  It  is  elastic  and 
hermetically  closed.  A  reservoir  containing  highly 
compressed  air  is  fixed  on  the  diver's  back,  which 
supplies  him  with  air  by  a  self-regulating  appa- 
ratus at  a  pressure  corresponding  to  his  depth. 
When  he  wishes  to  ascend  he  simply  inflates  his 
dress  from  the  reservoir. 

Another  form,  known  as  the  Fleuss  dress,  makes  the  diver  also  independent  of 
exterior  aid.  The  helmet  contains  a  supply  of  compressed  oxygen,  and  the  exhaled 
breath  is  passed  through  a  filter  in  the  breast-piece  which  deprives  it  of  its  carbonic 
acid,  while  the  nitrogen  goes  back  into  the  helmet  to  be  mixed  with  the  oxygen,  the 
supply  of  which  is  under  the  diver's  own  control,  and  to  be  successively  breathed. 
A  diver  has  remained  an  hour  and  a  half  under  thirty-five  feet  of  water  in  this  suit. 

A  considerable  enlargement  of  the  field  of  deep-sea  diving  is  the  result  of  the 
invention  recently  of  a  form  of  diving  apparatus  which  is  unaffected  by  the  limitations 
hitherto  imposed  on  work  of  this  kind.  A  possible  depth  of  204  feet  is  recognized 
by  the  British  Admiralty  regulations  under  the  conditions  that  obtain  with  the 
common  form  of  diving  suit.  Yet  this  depth  has  probably  never  been  reached.  One 
hundred  feet  is  the  rare  descent  of  the  average  diver  and  150  feet  his  maximum. 
With  the  new  apparatus  a  submergence  of  212  feet  has  been  obtained,  and  this  might 
have  been  indefinitely  extended  had  there  been  a  greater  depth  of  water  at  the  place 
where  the  experiment  took  place — Long  Island  Sound  during  the  latter  part  of  1914. 

The  new  diving  apparatus  is  constructed  entirely  of  metal,  is  rigid  and  is  made 
of  such  materials  that  it  is  strong  enough  to  resist  the  great  pressures  found  in  the 
depths  to  which  it  can  penetrate.  The  material  used  is  an  alloy  of  aluminum,  and 
the  diving  case  weighs  complete  about  500  pounds.  When  in  the  air,  the  man  inclosed 
in  it  is  incapable  of  imparting  movement  to  it,  but  in  the  water,  which  counter- 
balances the  dead  weight  of  the  apparatus,  he  can  easily  move  the  articulated  sections 


DIVING-DRESS  AND    DIVING-HELMET, 
BY  SIEBE,  GORMAN  &  Co. 

A.    Pipe  by  which  air  is  supplied. 
B.    Valve  by  which  it  escapes. 


412        WHAT  IS  A  DEEP-SEA  DIVER'S  DRESS  LIKE 

as  well  as  give  himself  motion  through  the  water.  The  articulated  portion  consists 
of  about  fifty  turning  joints,  fitted  with  leather  packing,  which  swells  and  has  an 
increased  effectiveness  under  increased  water  pressure.  To  prevent  the  pressure- 
force  of  the  deep  sea  from  jamming  the  joints,  roller  bearings  are  so  arranged  about 
them  that  freedom  of  action  is  constantly  maintained. 

The  diving  case  is  not  absolutely  water-tight,  nor  is  it  desired  that  it  should  be 
so,  as  the  slight  leakage  acts  as  a  lubricant  to  the  joints,  and  aids  in  their  move- 
ments. The  danger  arising  from  the  intake  of  water  thus  into  the  diving  case  is 
averted  by  the  action  of  an  ingenious  pump  appliance,  which  serves  two  purposes: 
that  of  pumping  the  water  out  and  pumping  the  air  in.  The  diver  in  this  invention 
carries  his  pump  with  him  and  has  air  supplied  to  him  at  atmospheric  pressure. 

At  the  back  of  the  diving  case  is  a  recess  and  in  it  is  installed  a  compact  but 
powerful  pump,  which  sucks  from  the  feet  of  the  suit  all  leakage  and  forces  it  at 
once  outward.  This  pump  is  worked  by  compressed  air,  and  the  air,  after  performing 
its  mechanical  part  of  driving  the  pump,  is  exhausted  into  the  suit  for  the  diver  to 
breathe  and  then  passes  to  the  surface  through  the  free  space  in  an  armored  rubber 
tube,  within  which  are  led  down  to  the  diver  the  compressed  air  pipe  for  driving  the 
pump,  and  the  electrical  connections  for  telephone  and  lamp.  Thus  the  diving  case 
receives  a  thorough  ventilation,  and  it  has  been  found  that  should  the  pump  fail  to 
work  for  a  number  of  minutes  there  would  still  be  enough  air  remaining  in  the  diving 
case  and  the  tube  space  to  supply  the  diver's  needs  for  at  least  the  length  of  time  he 
is  being  hauled  to  the  surface. 

During  the  experiment  in  Long  Island  Sound  the  pump  was  stopped  for  ten 
minutes,  while  the  diver  was  at  a  depth  of  100  feet.  He  suffered  no  inconvenience, 
and  when  the  compressor  again  was  started  he  was  lowered  to  a  depth  of  212  feet. 
If  such  a  condition  as  failure  of  the  pump  to  work  for  ten  minutes  had  arisen  during 
a  descent  in  the  old  elastic  diving  dress  the  result  must  necessarily  have  been  fatal. 
Nor  is  a  delay  necessary  in  hoisting  the  diver  clad  in  the  new  diving  apparatus  to  the 
surface.  According  to  the  British  Admiralty  regulations,  should  a  diver  go  down  to 
a  depth  of  204  feet,  the  time  of  his  ascent  must  be  not  less  than  one  hour  and  a  half. 
In  the  Long  Island  Sound  experiments  the  diver  was  hoisted  to  the  surface  in  eighty- 
seven  seconds.  He  was  totally  uneffected  by  the  abrupt  change  in  pressure,  although 
the  deepest  he  had  ever  been  was  ninety  feet,  and  on  that  occasion  he  had  suffered 
from  bleeding  at  the  nose  and  bars. 

Why  do  We  Smile  when  We  are  Pleased? 

We  smile  to  express  our  pleasure.  When  you  meet  a  friend  on  the  street  you 
smile  as  you  greet  him.  This  is  an  indication  of  your  pleasure  at  seeing  him.  This 
is  often  caused  by  an  unconscious  nervous  action  produced  by  the  impression  the 
occurrence  creates  on  the  brain.  You  do  not  have  to  think  about  smiling,  but  the 
muscles  of  your  face  contract  and  give  you  that  pleased  look  without  any  effort  on 
your  part. 

Why  do  Some  of  Us  have  Freckles? 

Some  people  have  freckles,  when  others  do  not,  because  all  skins  are  not  alike, 
just  the  same  as  eyes  are  not  all  of  one  color.  People  with  certain  kinds  of  skin  freckle 
more  quickly  when  the  skin  is  exposed  to  the  sun.  The  action  of  the  sun  on  their 
skin  causes  small  parts  of  the  second  layer  of  skin  to  give  out  a  yellow  or  yellowish 
brown  substance.  Freckles  are  most  common  in  persons  of  fair  complexion  and  hair. 
In  some  cases  freckles  are  permanent,  but  in  most  cases  they  disappear  with  the 
coming  of  cold  weather. 


PICTORIAL  STORY  OF  THE  STEEL  INDUSTRY     413 


MINING  ORE,  ISLAND  OP  CUBA.*    (See  page  415.) 


LOADING  ORE,  ISLAND  OF  CUBA.*     (See  page  415.) 

Illustrations  by  courtesy  of  the  Bethlehem  Steel  Co. 


414      PICTORIAL  STORY  OF  THE   STEEL   INDUSTRY 


PIG  IRON  CASTING  MACHINE*     (See  page  415,} 


OPEN-HEARTH  FURNACE  STOCK  YARD.*     (See  page  415.) 


*  Illustrations  by  courtesy  of  the  Bethlehem  Steel  Co. 


PICTORIAL  STORY  OF  THE  STEEL  INDUSTRY      415 

MINING  ORE,  ISLAND  OF  CUBA.     (See  page  413.) 

The  immense  veins  of  magnetic  ore  lie  close  to  the  surface  and  are  mined  or  quarried  by  working 
along  a  series  of  benches  or  ledges. 


LOADING  ORE,  ISLAND  OF  CUBA.     (See  page  413.) 

The  ore  is  loaded  into  small  buggies  at  the  mines  and  run  down  an  inclined  plane,  where  it  ia 
dumped  into  railroad  cars  for  transportation  to  the  shipping  wharves,  seventeen  miles  distant. 


PIG  IRON  CASTING  MACHINE.     (See  page  414.) 

No.  1  casting  machine  has  a  capacity  of  1,000  tons  per  day.     There  are  180  molds,  each  pig 
weighing  about  125  pounds. 

No.  2  machine  has  a  capacity  of  1,800  tons  per  day.     It  has  278  molds,  each  for  125-pound  pig. 
Product,  low  phosphorus,  Bessemer  and  basic,  or  high  phosphorus  machine-cast  pig  iron. 


OPEN-HEARTH  FURNACE  STOCK  YARD.     (See  page  414.) 

The  raw  materials  for  the  open-hearth  furnaces  are  received  on  elevated  railroad  tracks  graded 
and  piled  preparatory  to  sending  to  the  furnaces.  Yard  No.  1  is  950  feet  long  and  87  feet  wide, 
and  is  served  by  three  electric  traveling  cranes  of  twenty  tons  and  sixty  tons  capacity.  Yard  No.  2 
is  790  feet  long  and  84  feet  wide,  and  is  served  by  two  ten-ton  electric  traveling  cranes. 


OPEN-HEARTH  FURNACES.     (See  page  416.) 

No.  1  open-hearth  plant  consists  of  twelve  furnaces,  two  ten-ton,  two  twenty-ton,  five  forty- 
ton  and  two  fifty-ton  basic  furnaces  and  one  forty-ton  acid  furnace  with  gas  producers.  Length 
of  floor,  623  feet. 

No.  2  plant  consists  of  ten  fifty-ton  furnaces  with  gas  producers.     Length  of  floor,  890  feet. 


CHARGING  FLOOR  OF  OPEN-HEARTH  FURNACES.     (See  page  416.) 

The  stock  is  delivered  to  the  charging  floor  in  iron  boxes  loaded  on  narrow-gauge  buggies,  ana 
is  charged  into  the  furnaces  by  electric  charging  machines.  Length  of  floor  of  No.  1  open-hearth 
plant,  477  feet;  width,  28  feet.  Length  of  floor  of  No.  2  open-hearth  plant,  890  feet;  width,  50  feet. 


BLAST  FURNACE  STORAGE  PLANT.     (See  page  417.) 

The  coal,  coke,  ore,  etc.,  is  delivered  direct  by  the  railroad  cars  under  a  traveling  cantilever 
crane  running  on  tracks  laid  the  length  of  a  wharf  and  is  dumped  from  the  cars  through  chutes  into 
buckets  and  piled  until  needed  at  the  furnaces.  The  plant  is  capable  of  storing  over  1,000,000  tons 
of  material. 


BLAST  FURNACES.     (See  page  417.) 

Showing  stock  house,  blowing-engine  house,  etc.  Plant  consists  of  four  furnaces  70  feet  high, 
18-foot  boshet  and  12-foot  hearth.  One  furnace  90  feet  high,  22- foot  boshet  and  11  feet  6  inches 
hearth.  Blowing  engines  are  of  horizontal  compound  and  horizontal  vertical  compound  types, 
capable  of  blowing  a  pressure  of  25  pounds  of  air.  Four  furnaces  provided  with  fire-brick  regen- 
erator stoves  100  feet  high  and  18  feet  in  diameter.  Large  furnace  has  six  stoves  100  feet  high  by 
22  feet  in  diameter.  Boilers  fired  with  waste  got  from  furnace. 


416      PICTORIAL  STORY  OF  THE  STEEL  INDUSTRY 


OPEN-HEARTH  FURNACES.*     (See  page  415.) 


CHARGING  FLOOR  OF  OPEN  HEARTH  FURNACES.*     (See  page  415.) 


'Illustrations  by  courtesy  of  the  Bethlehem  Steel  Co. 


PICTORIAL  STORY  OF  THE  STEEL  INDUSTRY      417 


- 


BLAST  FURNACE  STORAGE  PLANT.*     (See  page  415.) 


BLAST  FURNACES.*     (See  page  415.) 


*  Illustrations  by  courtesy  of  the  B»tblehem  Steel  Co. 
27 


418      PICTORIAL  STORY  OF  THE  STEEL  INDUSTRY 


15,000-ToN  HYDRAULIC  FORGING  PRESS 

In  all  respects  this  press  is  the  largest  and  most  powerful  forging 
press  in  the  world.  Water  is  supplied  to  the  two  plungers  under  a 
pressure  of  7,000  pounds  per  square  inch,  giving  it  a  maximum  capacity 
of  15,000  tons.  The  columns  supporting  the  cross-head  are  14  feet 
6  inches  apart,  and  the  working  height  under  cross-head  is  17  feet 
1J4  inches. 
Courtesy  of  the  Bethlehem  Steel  Co. 


PICTORIAL  STCRV  OF  THE  STEEL  INDUSTRY      419 


DROP  FORGE  DIE  SHOP.*    (See  page  421.) 


VIEW  OP  A  SECTION  OF  PROJECTILE  FORGE  SHOP.* 


page  421.) 


*  Illustrations  by  courtesy  of  the  Bethlehem  Steel  Co. 


420      PICTORIAL  STORY  OF  THE  STEEL  INDUSTRY 


FORGING  HOLLOW  HEAVY  SHAFT.*    (See  page  421.) 


OIL-TEMPERING  HEAVY  SHAFT.*     (See  page  421.) 


*  Illustrations  by  courtesy  of  the  Bethlehem  Steel  Co. 


PICTORIAL  STORY  OF  THE  STEEL  INDUSTRY      421 

DROP  FORGE  DIE  SHOP.     (See  page  419.) 

This  shop  has  a  floor  space  of  20,400  square  feet.     With  full  equipment  of  most  modern  die 
sinking  tools. 


VIEW  OF  A  SECTION  OF  PROJECTILE  FORGE  SHOP.     (See  page  419.) 

This  shop  has  a  floor  space  of  22,000  square  feet  and  is  thoroughly  equipped  with  the  necessary 
hammers,  presses,  furnaces,  etc.,  for  the  forging,  punching,  closing  in,  treating  and  tempering  of  all 
sizes  of  armor-piercing  and  explosive  projectiles  and  shells. 


FORGING  HOLLOW  HEAVY  SHAFT.     (See  page  420.) 

No.  22.  The  biocK  has  a  hole  bored  through  its  center,  and  in  this  the  mandrel  is  inserted,  the 
tube  being  forged  around  it.  The  hydraulic  pressure  for  this  5,000-ton  press  is  furnished  by  Whit- 
worth  pumping  engines.  This  department  contains  also  a  2,500-ton  press  of  similar  design. 


OIL-TEMPERING  HEAVY  SHAFT.     (See  page  420.) 

Showing  a  shaft  weighing  about  33,000  pounds  being  taken  from  the  vertical  heating  furnace 
and  suspended  over  the  oil-tank  preparatory  to  being  lowered  for  tempering.  The  heating  furnace 
and  oil  tank  are  served  by  a  sixty-ton  traveling  crane  and  forty-ton  jib  crane.  The  shrinking  pit  for 
assembling  is  situated  between  the  heating  furnace  and.  oil  tank. 


ARMOR  PLATE  MACHINE  SHOP.     (See  page  423.) 

The  varied  and  complex  machining  required  on  armor  plate  demands  tools  of  enormous  size 
and  strength  as  well  as  varied  capacity.  The  equipment  of  this  shop  consists  of  large  saws,  planers, 
etc.,  together  with  numerous  portable  drill  presses,  grinders,  etc.  In  this  shop  the  different  groups 
of  armor  are  assembled  in  the  positions  they  will  occupy  on  the  vessel  and  are  finally  inspected  before 
shipment. 


FORGING  ARMOR.     (See  page  423.) 

After  heating,  the  ingot  is  placed  under  a  14,000-ton  hydraulic  forging  press  and  forged  to  the 
required  dimensions.  The  press  is  served  by  two  200-ton  cranes  with  hydraulic  lift  and  pneumatic 
travel.  Weight  of  the  porter-bar  and  chuck  which  hold  the  plate  for  forging  is  125,000  pounds, 
exclusive  of  counter-weights  used. 


SPECIAL  CAR  BUILT  FOR  THE  SHIPPING  OF  LARGE  AND  HEAVY  MATERIAL.     (See  page  424.) 

Length  of  car  over  couplers,  103  feet  10^  inches;  capacity,  300,000  pounds.  Weight  of  car, 
196,420  pounds.  Shown  here  loaded  with  casting  of  large  5,000-ton  flanging  press.  Weight  of 
casting,  252,000  pounds. 


THE  LARGEST  STEEL  CASTING  IN  THE  WORLD.     (See  page  424.) 

Combining  the  product  of  five  40-ton  open-hearth  furnaces.     Steel  casting  forming  part  of  a 
12,000-ton  armor-plate  hydraulic  forging  press.     Weight  of  casting,  325,000  pounds  (145  gross  tons). 


422      PICTORIAL  STORY  OF  THE  STEEL  INDUSTRY 


BENDING  ARMOR  PLATE 

After  being  rough-forged  to  size  and  re-heated,  the  plate  is  sent  to 
the  bending  press  to  be  straightened  or  bent  to  shape.  The  one  shown 
is  a  nickel  steel  side  armor  plate,  14  inches  thick.  The  press  exerts  a 
hydraulic  thrust  of  7,000  tons,  with  two  independently  operated  plungers, 
and  is  served  by  direct-fired  furnaces  with  movable  car  bottoms  and  two 
seventy-five  ton  hydraulic  cranes. 
Courtesy  of  the  Bethlehem  Steel  Co. 


PICTORIAL  STORY  OF  THE  STEEL   INDUSTRY      423 


AHMOR  PLATE  MACHINE  SHOP.*     (See  page  421.) 


FORGING  ARMOR.*     (See  page  421.) 


*  Illustrations  by  courtesy  of  the  Bethlehem  Steel  CQ. 


424      PICTORIAL  STORY  OF  THE  STEEL  INDUSTRY 


SPECIAL  CAR  BUILT  FOR  THE  SHIPPING  OF  LARGE  AND  HEAVY  MATERIAL  * 

(See  page  421.) 


THE  LARGEST  STEEL  CASTING  IN  THE  WORLD.*     (See  page  421.) 


*  IJJuat-rationB  by  courtesy  of  the  Bethlehem  Steel  Co. 


PICTORIAL  STORY  OF  THE  STEEL  INDUSTRY      425 


BATTLESHIP  TURRET.*     (See  page  427.) 


NICKEL  STEEL  FIELD  RING  FORGED  WITHOUT  WULD  FOR  A  5,000-HoRSE-PowEB 
DYNAMO.*     (See  page  4270 


*  Illustrations  by  courtesy  of  the  Bethlehem  Steel  Co. 


426      PICTORIAL  STORY  OF  THE  STEEL  INDUSTRY 


TURRET  FOR  Two  TWELVE-INCH  GUNS  FOR  UNITED  STATES  BATTLESHIP  "ALABAMA".* 

(See  page  427.) 


CONNING  TOWER  AND  ENTRANCE  SHIELD  FOR  UNITED  STATES  BATTLESHIP 
"MASSACHUSETTS. " *     (See  page  427.) 


*  Illustrations  by  courtesy  of  the  Bethlehem  Steel  CP, 


PICTORIAL  STORY  OF  THE  STEEL  INDUSTRY      427 


BATTLESHIP  TURRET.     (See  page  425.) 

Twelve-inch  turret  carrying  two  forty-five  caliber  twelve-inch  guns  for  the  U.  S.  Navy. 
These  guns  can  be  loaded  at  any  angle  of  elevation  or  azimuth  or  while  in  motion.  The  turret  is 
equipped  with  a  broken  or  double  hoist.  The  lower  hoist  supplying  ammunition  from  the  magazine 
to  an  upper  handling  room  immediately  below,  and  revolving  with,  the  turret  pan.  This  makes 
the  upper  or  gun  hoist  shorter  and  increases  the  speed  of  ammunition  service,  besides  interposing 
two  fireproof  bulkheads  between  the  guns  and  the  magazine  handling  room. 

NICKEL  STEEL  FIELD  RING  FORGED  WITHOUT  WELD  FOR  A  5,000-HoRSE -POWER  DYNAMO. 

(See  page  425.) 

Forged  dimensions:  outside  diameter,  141  inches;  inside  diameter,  131  inches;  width,  51 
inches.  Rough  machined  dimensions:  outside  diameter,  139%  inches;  inside  diameter,  130  inches; 
width,  50%  inches;  weight,  28,840  pounds.  Average  physical  properties  shown  in  United  States 
Standard  test  bar  taken  from  full-sized  prolongation  of  end  of  forging:  Elastic  limit,  53,560  pounds 
per  square  inch.  Elongation,  27.05  per  cent. 

TURRET  FOR  Two  TWELVE-INCH  GUNS  FOR  UNITED  STATES  BATTLESHIP  "ALABAMA." 

(See  page  426.) 

Balanced  type.  Thickness  of  inclined  plate,  14  inches;  of  side  plates,  10  inches.  Height  of 
side  plates,  7  feet.  Largest  diameter  of  turret,  393  inches.  Weight  of  turret,  192.41  tons. 

CONNING  TOWER  AND  ENTRANCE  SHIELD  FOR  IGNITED    STATES  BATTLESHIP  "MASSACHUSETTS." 

(See  page  426.) 

Conning  tower,  one  piece  hollow  forging,  nickel  steel,  oil  tempered.  Thickness  of  walls,  10  inches. 
Inside  diameter,  83  inches.  Height,  82 %  inches.  Top  plate,  nickel  steel,  oil-tempered,  l^j  inches 
thick.  Shield,  face-hardened  nickel  steel,  10  inches  thick,  66  inches  high. 


£>Ai-'E    .DEPOSIT   ARMOR   .PLATE    VAULT 

Size,  42  feet  6  inches  by  24  feet  6  inches  by  9  feet  6  inches  high;  weifht,  450  gross  tons. 
Courtesy  of  the  Bethlehem  Steel  Co. 


428      PICTORIAL  STORY  OF  THE  STEEL   INDUSTRY 


FRONT  DOOR,  WITH  TIME  LOCK,  FOR  ARMOR  PLATE 
SAFE  DEPOSIT  VAULT 

Thickness  of  front  door  plate,  12 ^  inches;   weight  of  door  plate, 
12,000  pounds. 

Courtesy  of  the  Bethlehem  Steel  Co. 


PICTORIAL  STORY  OF  THE  STEEL  INDUSTRY      429 


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430      PICTORIAL  STORY  OF  THE  STEEL  INDUSTRY 


PICTORIAL  STORY  OF  THE  STEEL  INDUSTRY 


431 


432      PICTORIAL  STORY  OF  THE  STEEL  INDUSTRY 


GIRDLING  THE  EARTH  WITH  STEEL 

A  steel  beam,  red-hot,  drawn  out  90  feet  long  in  a  huge  steel  mill  in  Pitts- 
burgh.    Steel  rolled  here  may  find  its  place  as  part  of  a  skyscraper  in  the  Babel 
of  New  York,  be  builded  into  the  framework  of  a  vessel  in  the  shipyards  of  San 
Francisco,  or  help  to  construct  a  railroad  into  the  heart  of  China. 
C«pyr»a«  If]/  Underwood  &  Underwood,  N.  Y. 


PICTORIAL  STORY  OF  THE  STEEL  INDUSTRY      433 


ARMOR  PLATE  FORGING  PRESS 

The  Bethlehem  Steel  Company  installed  this  great  hydraulic  press  to  replace  a  135- 
ton  steam  hammer,  which  was  abandoned  because  the  shock  of  its  blow  disturbed  the 
alignment  of  the  big  machines  in  nearby  shops.  This  press  is  the  largest  of  its  kind 
in  the  world,  having  a  capacity  of  15,000  tons,  induced  by  pressure  as  much  as  7rOOOi 
pounds  per  square  inch  in  its  two  hydraulic  cylinders  of  over  50£  inches  diameter. 


434      PICTORIAL  STORY  OF  THE  STEEL  INDUSTRY 


PICTORIAL  STORY  OF  THE  STEEL  INDUSTRY      435 


Courtesu  of  Bethl'hem  Steel  (!c. 


FORGING 


One-piece,  90-degree,  double-throw  crank  shaft  for  5,400  H.  P.  gas  engine.  Diameter 
of  shaft,  37  inches,  with  10-inch  hole.  Length  over  all,  25  feet  5  inches.  Crank  webs, 
16%  inches  thick,  6  feet  1%  inches  long,  4  feet  1  inch  wide.  Forged  weight  of  shaft, 
133,400  pounds.  Finished  weight,  83,855  pounds. 


We  have  always  said  "a  white  elephant"  when  we  have  meant  something  we 
didn't  know  what  to  do  with,  since  the  King  of  Siam  first  sent  a  white  elephant  to 
a  courtier  whose  fortune  he  wished  to  destroy. 

What  do  We  Mean  by  "  Deviation  of  the  Compass  "? 

When  people  speak  of  " deviation  of  the  compass"  they  mean  the  difference 
of  a  ship's  compass  from  the  magnetic  meridian,  caused  by  the  near  presence  of  iron. 
In  iron  ships  the  amount  of  deviation  depends  upon  the  direction,  with  regard  to  the 
magnetic  meridian,  in  which  the  ship  lay  when  being  built.  It  is  least  when  the  ship 
has  been  built  with  her  head  south.  Armor-plated  ships  should  be  plated  with  their 
head  in  a  different  direction  from  that  in  which  they  lay  when  built. 

The  mode  now  generally  employed  to  correct  deviation  is  by  introducing  on 
board  ship  masses  of  iron  and  magnets  to  neutralize  the  action  of  the  ship's  mag- 
netism so  far  as  possible. 

Compasses  are  sometimes  carried  on  masts  in  iron  vessels  as  a  means  of  removing 
them  from  the  disturbing  influence  of  the  iron  of  the  hull.  In  this  position  they  serve 
as  standards  of  comparison  for  the  binnacle  compass. 

Wooden  ships  are  also  affected,  though  in  a  far  less  degree,  by  the  direction  in 
they  lie  when  building. 


The  Story  in  the  Making  of  a  Pair 

of  Shoes* 

The  covering  and  protection  of  the  feet  has  been  a  necessity  in  all  but  the 
warm  climates  for  very  many  centuries,  various  articles  being  used  for  this  purpose. 
Leather  is  now  very  generally  employed,  though  wood  is  often  used  in  Holland  and 
France  and  paper  in  China  and  Japan.  The  moccasin  of  the  American  Indian  was 
made  of  untanned  deer  skin.  The  first  historical  mention  of  a  shoe  is  in  the  Old 
Testament,  where  Abraham  refused  to  take  as  much  as  a  "shoe-latchet"  from  the 
King  of  Sodom.  This  probably  meant  a  sandal,  leather  strapped  to  the  foot,  though 
the  Jews  wore  shoes  as  well,  and  both  shoes  and  sandals  were  worn  in  Greece  and 
Rome.  Both  in  ancient  and  modern  times  the  styles  of  shoes  worn  have  varied 
greatly,  fashion  taking  hold  of  them.  In  the  reigns  of  the  English  kings  Henry  I 
and  Stephen,  the  people  of  the  court  wore  shoes  with  long  points  stuffed  with  tow 
and  made  to  coil  like  a  ram's  horn,  and  by  the  time  of  Richard  II  the  points  had 
grown  so  long  as  to  reach  the  knee,  to  which  they  were  fastened  by  silver  or  gold 
chains.  In  the  eighteenth  century  ladies  wore  shoes  with  absurdly  high  heels,  a 
ridiculous  fashion  which  has  come  back  within  our  own  times.  An  improvement 
which  was  adopted  in  the  early  nineteenth  century  was  that  of  making  shoes  right 
and  left.  Boots,  which  have  at  times  been  much  worn,  are  a  variety  of  shoe  lengthened 
to  protect  part  of  the  legs. 

Until  within  a  recent  period  the  trade  of  shoemaker  was  an  active  one,  all  boots 
and  shoes  being  made  by  hand.  At  the  present  time,  however,  the  old-time  shoe- 
maker, with  his  bench,  lapstone,  last  and  awls  has  almost  gone  out  of  business, 
except  as  a  cobbler,  mending  instead  of  making  having  become  his  usual  occupation. 
In  his  place  has  come  the  factory  hand,  nearly  all  footwear  being  now  a  product  of 
machinery,  and  this  of  greatly  varied  and  effective  character.  In  this  form  shoe- 
making  has  become  a  thriving  industry  in  New  England  and  in  some  other  parts 
of  the  United  States.  This  method  has  greatly  decreased  the  cost  of  shoes,  inven- 
tion having  so  hastened  and  cheapened  all  its  processes  that  the  number  of  shoes 
that  it  would  take  an  old-time  shoemaker  a  year  to  make  can  be  turned  out  in  a  few 
hours  by  modern  machinery. 

Shoemaking  by  Machine. 

The  variety  of  inventions  used  in  shoe  factories  is  rather  bewildering,  every 
one  of  the  many  processes  having  a  machine  of  its  own,  and  each  of  these  doing  its 
work  with  admirable  precision.  We  can  name  here  only  the  more  important  of  these 
implements. 

First  comes  the  clicking  machine.  This  has  a  cutting  board  resembling  that 
used  by  the  hand  workmen.  Over  this  is  a  beam  containing  a  cutting  die  under 
which  the  leather  is  passed.  At  every  descent  of  the  die  a  piece  of  leather  is  cut 
out  of  the  skin  of  the  size  and  shape  needed  for  the  upper  leather  of  a  shoe.  Thus 
in  an  instant  is  done  what  was  slowly  done  by  a  sharp  knife  moved  around  a  pattern 
m  the  old  method. 

The  piece  of  leather  thus  cut  out  is  next  passed  under  the  skiving  machine,  which 
shaves  down  its  edges  to  a  bevel,  the  thinned  edge  being  then  folded,  after  which 

*  Illustrations  by  courtesy  of  United  Shoe  Machinery  Co. 

(436) 


STORY  IN  THE  MAKING  OF  A  PAIR  OF  SHOES    437 


IN  THE  DAYS  OF  THE  AWL,  LAPSTONE 
AND   HAMMER 


CROSS-SECTION  OF  GOODYEAR  WELT  SHOE,  SHOWING  THE 
DIFFERENT  PARTS  AND  THEIR  RELATION  TO  I^ACH  OTHER 


AMAZEEN  SKIVING 
MACHINE 


INSOLE  TACKING  MACHINE 


438    STORY   IN  THE  MAKING  OF  A  PAIR  OF  SHOES 


IDEAL  CLICKING  MACHINE 


DUPLEX  EYELETING  MACHINE 


ENSIGN  LACING  MACHINE 


STORY  IN  THE  MAKING  OF  A  PAIR  OF  SHOES   439 


REX   UfP'EIi   'l  RIMMING 

MACHINE 


ilEX    PULLING-OVEK    iVlACHIJSj 


CROWN  TIP  PUNCHING 


440    STORY  IN  THE  MAKING  OF  A  PAIR  OF  SHOES 


BED  LASTING  MACHINE 


GOODYEAR  UNIVERSAL  INSEAM 
TRIMMING  MACHINE 


TACK-PULLING  AND  RE- 
SETTING MACHINE 


CONSOLIDATED  HAND  METH- 
OD WELT  LASTING  MACHINE 


STORY  IN  THE  MAKING  OF  A  PAIR  OF  SHOES    441 


IMPROVED  SOLE  LAYING  MACHINE 


STAR  CHANNEL  CEMENTING 
MACHINE 


GOODYEAR  AUTOMATIC  SOLE  LEVELING   MACHINE 


AMERICAN  LIGHTNING  NAILING 
MACHINE 


442    STORY   IN  THE  MAKING  OF  A  PAIR  OF  SHOES 

the  toe  caps  are  passed  through  a  punching  machine  which  cuts  a  series  of  ornamental 
perforations  along  the  edge  of  the  cap.  The  linings  of  the  shoe  are  then  prepared 
and  put  in  place  and  the  whole  goes  to  the  stitchers,  by  which  all  the  parts  of  the 
upper  are  united.  This  is  done  by  a  range  of  machines,  which  perform  the  varied 
operations  with  wonderful  rapidity  and  accuracy.  The  eyelets  are  next  added  by  a 
machine  which  places  them  in  both  sides  of  the  shoe  at  the  same  time  and  directly 
opposite  each  other,  this  operation  finishing  the  upper  part  of  the  shoe. 

The  sole  leather  portions  of  the  shoe  pass  through  another  series  of  machines, 
being  cut  from  sides  of  sole  leather  by  the  dieing-out  machine,  cut  to  exact  shape 
by  the  rounding  machine  and  to  exact  thickness  by  the  splitting  machine,  and  then 
toughened  by  passing  under  a  heavy  rolling  machine.  These  and  other  machines 
complete  the  soles  and  hcjels,  which  are  finally  sent  to  the  making  or  bottoming  room, 
where  the  completed  shoe  uppers  awaits  them. 

The  first  process  here  is  that  of  the  ensign  lacing  machine,  which  puts  a  strong 
twine  through  the  eyelets  and  ties  it  in  an  accurate  manner.  This  is  done  very 
swiftly  and  exactly,  its  purpose  being  to  hold  the  parts  of  the  shoe  in  their  normal 
position  while  the  shoe  is  being  completed.  The  last,  made  of  wood,  is  now  put  in 
place  and  tacked  fast  by  the  insole  tacking  machine,  when  the  upper  is  placed  over 
it  and  fastened  by  two  tacks  to  hold  it  in  place.  Then  comes  the  pulling-over  machine, 
the  pincers  of  which  draw  the  leather  securely  against  the  wood  of  the  last,  to  which 
it  is  fastened  by  other  tacks.  These  tacks  in  the  upper  are  driven  only  part  way 
in,  so  that  they  may  be  easily  drawn  out  when  no  longer  needed. 

The  welt  lasting  machine  next  takes  the  job  in  hand,  it  being  almost  human- 
like in  the  evenness  and  tightness  with  which  it  draws  the  leather  around  the  last, 
other  tacks  being  driven  partly  in  to  hold  it  in  place.  A  second  lasting  machine  of 
different  kind,  draws  it  around  the  toe  and  heel.  Then  comes  the  upper  trimming 
machines,  which  cuts  away  the  surplus  parts  of  the  leather,  the  Rex  pounding  machine, 
which  hammers  it  around  the  heel,  the  tack  pulling  machine  which  removes  the 
lasting  tacks  and  puts  in  others  to  hold  the  new  placed  leather,  and  the  upper  stapling 
machine,  which  forms  a  little  staple  fastening  from  wire  which  securely  holds  the 
shoe  upper  to  the  channel  lip  of  the  insole. 

The  shoe  is  now  ready  to  receive  the  welt,  a  narrow  strip  of  prepared  leather 
which  is  sewed  along  the  edge  of  the  shoe  and  holds  all  its  parts  firmly  together. 
This  used  to  be  one  of  the  most  difficult  tasks  in  hand-work,  but  is  done  rapidly 
and  exactly  by  this  machine.  After  this  all  protruding  parts  of  the  welt  and  upper 
are  trimmed  off  by  another  machine,  the  insole  tack  pulling  machine  removes  all 
the  remaining  temporary  tacks,  and  the  welt-beating  and  slashing  machines  beats 
the  welt  with  little  hammers  till  it  stands  out  evenly  from  the  side  of  the  shoe. 

It  may  seem  as  if  the  number  of  machines  engaged  in  this  work  are  almost  beyond 
number,  but  there  are  nearly  as  many  more  to  come.  In  fact,  a  factory  shoe  in  many 
cases  is  not  completed  until  170  machines  and  210  pairs  of  hands  have  taken  part 
in  putting  it  together  and  getting  it  into  shape  for  the  wearer,  and  each  of  these 
machines  works  with  an  accuracy  which  no  hand-work  can  equal.  We  have  so  far 
witnessed  the  assembling  of  the  several  parts  of  the  shoe  into  one  connected  whole. 
The  remaining  processes  must  be  run  over  more  rapidly. 

There  is  a  sole-laying  machine,  a  rounding  and  channeling  machine,  a  loose 
nailing  machine  (the  Jatter  driving  nails  into  the  heel  at  the  rate  of  350  per  minute), 
a  heel  seat  rounding  machine,  and  various  others,  one  sewing  the  welt  to  the  shoe, 
a  leveling  machine,  a  second  nailing  machine,  which  does  the  final  work  of  attaching 
the  heel  to  the  shoe,  and  so  on  somewhat  indefinitely. 

The  remaining  machines  have  to  do  with  the  final  finishing.  They  include 
trimmers,  stitch  separators,  edge  setters,  buffers,  finishers,  cleaners,  stampers,  shoe 
treers,  creasers,  etc.,  each  playing  a  part  of  some  importance  in  giving  a  final  finish 


STORY  IN  THE  MAKING  OF  A  PAIR  OF  SHOES    443 


EDGE  TRIMMING  MACHINE 


CLIMAX  FINISHING  SHAFT 


GOODYEAK    HEEL   SEAT 
ROUNDING  MACHINE 


LOOSE  NAILING  MACHINE 


THE    HADAWAY   STITCH 
SEPARATING  MACHINE 


444    STORY  IN  THE  MAKING  OF  A  PAIR  OF  SHOES 


NAUMKEAG  BUFFING  MACHINE 


REGENT  STAMPING  MACHINE 


GOODYEAR  UNIVERSAL  ROUNDING  AND  CHANNELING  MACHINE 


STORY  IN  THE  MAKING  OF  A  PAIR  OF  SHOES    445 


GOODYEAR  WELT  AJNTD  TURN  SHOE  MACHINE 


STITCH  AND  UPPER  CLEANING 
MACHINE 


TWIN  EDGE  SETTING  MACHINE 


446    STORY  IN  THE  MAKING  OF  A  PAIR  OF  SHOES 


GOODYEAR  OUTSOLE  RAPID  LOCKSTITCH  MACHINE 


IMPROVED  VAMP   CREAS- 
ING MACHINE 


MILLER  SHOW  TREEING  MACHINE 


STORY  IN  THE  MAKING  OF  A  PAIR  OF  SHOES    447 


THE  EVOLUTION  OF  A  GOODYEAR  WELT  SHOE 

1.  A  last.  2.  An  upper.  3.  An  Insole.  4.  Shoe 
lasted  and  ready  to  have  welt  sewed  on.  5.  Welt  partly 
sewed  on.  6.  Welt  entirely  sewed  on  the  shoe.  7.  An 
outsole.  8.  Shoe  with  outsole  laid  and  rounded;  channel 
lip  turned  up  ready  to  be  stitched.  9.  Shoe  with  sole 
stitched  on.  10.  Shoe  with  heel  in  place.  11.  Heel 
trimmed  and  shoe  ready  for  finishing 


448    STORY   IN  THE  MAKING  OF   A   PAIR   OF  SHOES 

to  the  shoe  and  making  it  presentable  to  the  wearer.  The  whole  operation,  as  will 
be  seen,  is  a  highly  complicated  one,  and  is  remarkably  effective  in  preparing  an 
article  that  shall  appeal  to  the  salesman  and  purchaser  and  prove  satisfactory  when 
put  into  use. 

Such  is  the  complicated  process  of  making  a  shoe  by  machinery.  It  would 
be  hard  to  find  any  machine  process  that  surpasses  it  in  complexity  and  the  number 
of  separate  machines  involved.  Poor  old  St.  Crispin  would  certainly  expire  with 
envy  if  he  could  see  his  favorite  thus  taken  out  of  the  hands  of  his  artisans  and  the 
shoe  whirled  rapidly  through  a  host  of  odd  but  effective  contrivances  on  the  way 
to  become  made  fit  for  wear. 


What  is  "  Standard  Gold  "? 

Gold  is  one  of  the  heaviest  of  the  metals,  and  not  being  liable  to  be  injured  by 
exposure  to  the  air,  it  is  well  fitted  to  be  used  as  coin.  Its  ductility  and  malleability 
are  very  remarkable.  It  may  be  beaten  into  leaves  so  exceedingly  thin  that  one 
grain  in  weight  will  cover  fifty-six  square  inches,  such  leaves  having  the  thickness 
of  only  1 /282000th  part  of  an  inch.  It  is  also  extremely  ductile;  a  single  grain  may 
be  drawn  into  a  wire  500  feet  long,  and  an  ounce  of  gold  covering  a  silver  wire  is 
capable  of  being  extended  upwards  of  1,300  miles.  It  may  also  be  melted  and 
remelted  with  scarcely  any  diminution  of  its  quantity.  It  is  soluble  in  nitromuriatic 
acid  and  in  a  solution  of  chlorine.  Its  specific  gravity  is  19.3,  so  that  it  is  about 
nineteen  times  heavier  than  water.  The  fineness  of  gold  is  estimated  by  carats, 
pure  gold  being  twenty-four  carats  fine. 

Jeweler's  gold  is  usually  a  mixture  of  gold  and  copper  in  the  proportions  of 
three-fourths  of  pure  gold  with  one-fourth  of  copper.  Gold  is  seldom  used  for  any 
purpose  in  a  state  of  perfect  purity  on  account  of  ite  softness,  but  is  combined  with 
some  other  metal  to  render  it  harder.  Standard  gold,  or  the  alloy  used  for  the  gold 
coinage  of  Britain,  consists  of  twenty-two  parts  of  gold  and  two  of  copper  (being 
thus  twenty-two  carats  fine). 

Articles  of  jewelry  in  gold  are  made  of  every  degree  of  fineness  up  to  eighteen 
carats,  i.  e.,  eighteen  parts  of  gold  to  six  of  alloy.  The  alloy  of  gold  and  silver  is 
found  already  formed  in  nature,  and  is  that  most  generally  known.  It  is  distinguish- 
able from  that  of  copper  by  possessing  a  paler  yellow  than  pure  gold,  while  the 
copper  alloy  has  a  color  bordering  upon  reddish  yellow.  Palladium,  rhodium  and 
tellurium  are  also  met  with  as  alloys  of  gold. 

Gold  has  been  found  in  smaller  or  larger  quantities  in  nearly  all  parts  of  the 
world.  It  is  commonly  found  in  reefs  or  veins  among  quartz,  and  in  alluvial  deposits; 
it  is  separated,  in  the  former  case,  by  quarrying,  crushing,  washing  and  treatment 
with  mercury.  The  rock  is  crushed  by  machinery  and  then  treated  with  mercury, 
which  dissolves  the  gold,  forming  a  liquid  amalgam;  after  which  the  mercury  is 
volatilized,  and  the  gold  left  behind;  or  the  crushed  ore  is  fused  with  metallic  lead, 
which  dissolves  out  the  gold,  the  lead  being  afterwards  separated  by  the  process  of 
cupellation. 

By  the  "cyanide  process,"  in  which  cyanide  of  potassium  is  used  as  a  solvent 
for  the  gold,  low-grade  ores  can  be  profitably  worked.  In  alluvial  deposits  it  is 
extracted  by  washing,  in  dust  grains,  laminae  or  nuggets. 

In  modern  times  large  supplies  of  gold  were  obtained  after  the  discovery  of 
America  from  Peru,  Bolivia,  and  other  parts  of  the  New  World.  Till  the  discovery 
of  gold  in  California,  a  chief  source  of  the  supply  was  the  Ural  Mountains  in  Russia. 
An  immense  increase  in  the  total  production  of  gold  throughout  the  world  was 
caused  by  the  discovery  of  gold  in  California  in  1848,  and  that  of  the  equally  rich 


WHAT  IS  "STANDARD  GOLD' 


449 


ROLLING  ROOM 


The  upper  view  shows  the  melting  room  in  the  United  States  Mint,  Philadelphia. 
The  man  at  the  right  is  about  to  pour  hot  metal  into  the  iron  molds.  The  lower  view 
is  in  the  coining  department,  where  the  ingots  such  as  are  seen  on  the  truck  in  foreground, 
are  rolled  into  long  strips  of  the  thickness  of  the  several  coins,  and  then  cut  into  blanks 
or  planchets. 


450 WHAT  ARE  CYCLONES 

gold  fields  of  Australia  in  1851.  The  yield  from  both  sources  has  considerably 
decreased.  Other  sections  of  the  United  States  have  of  late  years  proved  prolific 
sources  of  gold,  especially  Colorado,  which  now  surpasses  California  in  yield,  and 
Alaska,  which  equals  it.  Canada  has  gold  fields  in  several  localities,  the  richest 
being  those  of  the  Klondike. 

At  present  the  richest  gold  field  in  the  world  is  that  of  South  Africa,  which 
yielded  in  1910  a  value  of  $175,000,000,  somewhat  exceeding  the  combined  yield 
of  the  United  States  and  Australia.  Russia  and  Mexico  followed  these  in  yield. 
The  total  production  throughout  the  world  amounted  to  over  $450,000,000,  of  which 
the  United  States  produced  $96,000,000. 

What  are  Cyclones? 

A  cyclone  is  a  circular  or  rotatory  storm,  or  system  of  winds,  varying  from  50  to 
500  miles  in  diameter,  revolving  around  a  center,  which  advances  at  a  rate  that  may 
be  as  high  as  forty  miles  an  hour,  and  towards  which  the  winds  tend. 

Cyclones  of  greatest  violence  occur  within  the  tropics,  and  they  revolve  in  opposite 
directions  in  the  two  hemispheres — in  the  southern  with,  and  in  the  northern  against, 
the  hands  of  a  watch — in  consequence  of  which,  and  the  progression  of  the  center, 
the  strength  of  the  storm  in  the  northern  hemisphere  is  greater  on  the  south  of  the 
line  of  progression  and  smaller  on  the  north  than  it  would  if  the  center  were  sta- 
tionary, the  case  being  reversed  in  the  southern  hemisphere. 

Ail  anti-cyclone  is  a  storm  of  opposite  character,  the  general  tendency  of  the 
winds  in  it  being  away  from  the  center,  while  it  also  shifts  within  comparatively  small 
limits.  Cyclones  are  preceded  by  a  singular  calm  and  a  great  fall  of  the  barometer. 

What  Metals  can  be  Drawn  into  Wire  ECst? 

The  wire-drawing  of  metals  depends  on  the  property  of  solid  bodies,  which  renders 
them  capable  of  being  extended  without  any  separation  of  their  parts,  while  their 
thickness  is  diminished.  This  property  is  called  "ductility." 

The  following  is  nearly  the  order  of  ductility  of  the  metals  which  possess  the 
property  in  the  highest  degree,  that  of  the  first  mentioned  being  the  greatest:  gold, 
silver,  platinum,  iron,  copper,  zinc,  tin,  lead,  nickel,  palladium,  cadmium. 

Dr.  Wollaston  succeeded  in  obtaining  a  wire  of  platinum  only  1 /30000th  of  an 
inch  in  diameter.  The  ductility  of  glass  at  high  temperatures  seems  to  be  unlimited, 
while  its  flexibility  increases  in  proportion  to  the  fineness  to  which  its  threads  are 
drawn. 

How  are  Cocoanuts  Used  to  Help  Our  Warships? 

The  fibrous  husks  of  cocoanuts  are  prepared  in  such  a  way  as  to  form  "cellulose/' 
which  is  used  for  the  protection  of  warships,  preventing  the  inflow  of  water  through 
shot  holes. 

The  United  States  adopted  the  preparation  for  this  purpose  in  1892. 

It  is  very  light  and  compressible  and  when  tightly  packed  between  the  steel 
plating  and  the  side  of  the  vessel  will  expand  when  wet  and  fill  up  the  space  through 
which  a  shot  may  have  passed. 

Another  and  cheaper  product  experimented  with  is  the  pith  of  the  cornstalk, 
which  is  much  lighter  than  the  cocoanut  fiber  and  serves  the  same  purpose. 

How  did  the  Dollar  Sign  Originate? 

The  sign,  $,  used  in  this  country  to  signify  a  dollar,  is  supposed  to  date  from 
the  time  of  the  pillar  dollar  in  Spam.  This  was  known  as  the  "Piece  of  Eight" 
(meaning  eight  reals),  the  curve  being  a  partial  representation  of  the  figure  8.  The 
two  vertical  strokes  are  thought  to  represent  the  Pillars  of  Hercules,  which  were 
stamped  upon  the  coin  itself. 


PICTORIAL  STORY  OF  FIRE  APPARATUS 


451 


MOTOR  DRIVEN  AERIAL  TRUCK* 

The  66-foot  ladder  of  this  truck  is  raised  by  the  motor  which  drives  the  machine. 
A  full  equipment  of  scaling  ladders  and  fire-fighting  apparatus  is  carried. 


MOTOR  FIRE  ENGINE  AND  HOSE  TRUCK* 

One  of  the  latest  fire-fighting  units.  A  powerful  gasoline  engine  supplies  the  motive 
power  and  drives  the  pump  which  has  a  capacity  of  700  gallons  per  minute.  The 
machine  also  acts  as  a  hose  cart  and  carries  a  full  complement  of  firemen. 


^Courtesy  of  James  Boyd  &  Bro.,  Inc. 


452 


PICTORIAL  STORY  OF  FIRE  APPARATUS 


A  CRANE  NECK  HAND  FIRE  ENGINE* 

This  engine  was  manned  by  sixty  trained  men  and 
under  expert  operation  would  throw  a  stream  of  1.53 
gallons  per  stroke  more  than  200  feet. 


THE  FIRST  STEAM  FIRE  ENGINE  BUILT  IN  1841* 


*  Courtesy  of  American  LaFrance  Fire  Engine  Co. 


PICTORIAL  STORY  OF  FIRE  APPARATUS 


453 


THE  SPLENDID  HORSES  BY  WHICH  THE  HAND-DRAWN  FIRE  APPARATUS 
WERE  SUPPLANTED  ARE  IN  TURN  GIVING  WAY  TO  POWERFUL  MOTOR 
ENGINES  AND  TRUCKS.* 


AN  OLD-TIME  LAFRANCE  PISTON  STEAM  FIRE  ENGINE* 

Built  in  1894,  at  which  time  it  had  a  capacity  of  900  gallons  per  min- 
ute. This  steam  engine  was  equipped  with  a  LaFrance  boiler.  This 
particular  engine  was  in  service  in  Superior,  Wis.,  and  was  in  continuous 
service  pumping  water  on  a  coal  fire  night  and  day  from  November  18, 
1913,  to  February  18,  1914  (just  exactly  three  months),  during  which  time 
it  was  only  shut  down  twice  to  replace  burned-out  grates  and  three  times 
to  replace  broken  springs.  During  all  of  this  time  this  steamer  was  incased 
in  snow  and  ice. 


*  Courtesy  of  American  LaFrance  Fire  Engine  Co. 


454 


PICTORIAL  STORY  OF  FIRE  APPARATUS 


GASOLINE   TWO-WHEEL  FRONT-DRIVE,   FIRST  SIZE   J^TEAM  FIRE 

ENGINE  * 

Seventy  horse-power,  four-cylinder  motor;  speed,  35  miles  per 
hour;  locomotive  bell  and  hand-operated  siren  horn;  boiler,  36x66 
inches;  suction  hose,  2  lengths,  43^-inch  diameter;  lanterns,  three, 
fire  department  standard;  hydrant  connections;  carrying  capacity, 
four  men. 


COMBINATION   CHEMICAL  ENGINE   AND   HOSE   CAR* 

Seventy  horse-power,  four-cylinder  motor;  speed,  60  miles  per  hour;  hose  capacity, 
1,200  feet  2>£-inch  hose;  chemical  cylinder,  one  40-gallon  capacity;  chemical  hose, 
200  feet  %-inch  chemical  hose;  acid  receptacles,  two;  one  10-inch  electric  searchlight; 
locomotive  bell  and  hand-operated  siren  horn;  extinguishers,  two  3-gallon  Babcock,  fire 
department  standard;  ladders,  one  20-foot  extension  ladder,  one  12-foot  roof  ladder  with 
folding  hooks;  lanterns,  four,  fire  department  standard;  axe,  one,  fire  department  stand- 
ard; pike  pole,  one;  crowbar,  one  of  steel  held  by  snaps;  carrying  capacity,  seven  men. 


*  Courtesy  of  American  LaFrance  Fire  Engine  Co. 


PICTORIAL  STORY  OF  FIRE  APPARATUS 


455 


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456 


PICTORIAL  STORY  OF  FIRE  APPARATUS 


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PICTORIAL  STORY  OF  FIRE  APPARATUS 


457 


THE  BODY  OF  THIS  CAR  HAS  A  CAPACITY  OF  800  FEET  OF  2^-lNCH  FIRE 
HOSE  AND  IS  ALSO  EQUIPPED  WITH  A  40-GALLON  TANK,  WITH  CHEMICAL  HOSE, 
FIRE  EXTINGUISHER  AND  EXTENSION  LADDER.* 


GASOLINE  Two- WHEEL  FRONT-DRIVE  AERIAL  TRUCK* 

Une  hundred  horse-power;  six-cylinder  motor;  speed,  25  miles  per  hour;  locomotive  bell  and 
hand-operated  siren  horn;  extinguishers,  two  3-gallon  Babcock,  fire  department  standard;  lanterns, 
four,  fire  department  standard;  axes,  four,  fire  department  standard;  wall  picks,  two;  crowbars, 
two;  shovels,  two;  wire  cutter,  one;  door  opener,  one;  tin  roof  cutter,  one;  pitchforks,  two;  bat- 
tering ram,  one;  Manila  rope,  tackle  and  snatch  block;  pull-down  hook  with  pole,  chain  and  rope; 
rubber  buckets,  four;  crotch  poles,  two;  pike  poles,  six,  assorted  lengths;  wire  basket,  one  under 
frame;  one  10-inch  electric  searchlight. 


GASOLINE  TWO-WHEEL  BEVEL-GEAR  FRONT-URIVE  \VATEK  TOWER* 

One  hundred  horse-power;  six-cylinder  motor;  speed,  25  miles  per  hour;  one  10-inch 
electric  searchlight;  locomotive  bell  and  hand-operated  siren  horn;  deck  turret,  one,  mounted; 
nozzle  tips,  three  for  deck  turret,  1^-inch,  1%-inch,  2-inch;  three  for  tower  nozzle,  13^-inch, 
1%-inch,  2-inch;  hose,  one  35-foot  length,  4-inch  cotton,  rubber  lined;  lanterns,  two,  fire 
department  standard;  axes,  two  heavy  pick  back,  fire  department  standard;  crowbar,  one  of 

Steel,  held  by  snaps.  *  Courtesy  of  American  LaFrance  Fire  Engine  Co. 


The  Story  of  the  Taking  of  Food 
From  the  Air* 

What  is  the  greatest  discovery  of  the  last  twenty-five  years?  Probably  you 
will  say  the  wireless  telegraph,  the  flying  machine,  moving  pictures  or  the  phono- 
graph, but  it  would  be  none  of  these,  according  to  the  Scientific  American.  This 
publication  discussed  at  great  length  the  subject  of  what  invention  of  the  last  twenty- 
five  years  was  of  greatest  value  to  mankind.  First  place  was  given  not  to  the  wonderful 
inventions  that  are  so  large  in  the  public  eye,  but  to  the  fixation  of  nitrogen  from 
the  air  for  fertilizer  purposes.  Why?  Simply  because  this  discovery  stands  between 

man  and  starvation.  Other 
inventions  are  vastly  impor- 
tant, but  this  one  is  vital. 
Looking  at  it  from  the  broad- 
est view  there  can  be  no 
other  decision.  The  time  is 
here  when  to  feed  the  world 
is  becoming  a  more  and  more 
difficult  problem. 

During  the  past  ten 
years  our  population  has 
increased  at  the  rate  of  two 
per  cent  per  annum,  while 
our  crop  production  has  in- 
creased only  one-half  as  fast. 
In  six  years  the  number  of 
beef  cattle  produced  in  this 
country  has  fallen  off  about 
five  per  cent  per  annum.  The 
cost  of  foodstuffs  recently 
has  been  increasing  at  the 

rate  of  five  per  cent  per  annum.  The  hardships  experienced  by  wage-earners,  par- 
ticularly in  the  United  States,  have  been  very  great  in  view  of  the  fact  that  the  cost 
of  food  increased  more  rapidly  than  wages — at  a  rate  approximately  double.  The 
same  tendencies  apply  with  some  modifications  to  the  clothing  of  mankind.  These 
facts  point  to  the  necessity  of  increasing  the  yields  both  of  the  food  crops  and  the 
crops  that  are  used  in  the  making  of  clothing. 

The  problem  of  decreasing  the  cost  of  living  has  been  given  far  more  attention 
abroad  than  it  has  in  this  country,  owing  to  the  much  greater  density  of  population 
in  the  principal  nations  of  Europe.  For  a  long  time  it  has  been  known  that  plants 
require  food  the  same  as  animals  and  human  beings.  Without  food  plants  cannot 
live  and  grow,  and  just  to  the  extent  that  plant  food  is  present  in  the  soil,  to  that 
extent  will  a  crop  be  produced.  The  most  important  of  plant  foods  is  nitrogen. 
While  the  earth  is  literally  bathed  in  nitrogen,  this  element  is  found  to  only  a  very 
slight  degree  in  the  soil.  That  is  to  say,  the  air  which  we  breathe  and  in  which  we 
move  is  four-fifths  nitrogen,  yet  in  the  richest  soil  there  is  seldom  more  than  one- 
tenth  or  two-tenths  of  one  per  cent  of  nitrogen.  Put  on  a  wheat  crop  one  pound 

*niu8trations  by  courtesy  of  American  Cyanamid  Company. 

(458) 


WRAPPER  LEAF  TOBACCO   CROP  FERTILIZED  WITH  CYANAMID 
MIXTURES.    GROWN  IN  HATFIELD,  MASS. 


STORY  OF  TAKING  POOD  FROM  THE  AIR 


459 


of  nitrogen  and  you  can  take  off  twenty  pounds  more  wheat  and  forty  pounds  more 
straw  than  you  could  if  you  failed  to  make  this  application.  One  pound  of  nitrogen 
properly  applied  to  a  cornfield  will  add  thirty-five  pounds  to  the  crop;  one  pound 
of  nitrogen  will  produce  one  hundred  pounds  of  increase  in  the  potato  crop;  one 
pound  of  nitrogen  will  produce  five  pounds  of  cotton,  without  any  extra  labor  being 
devoted  to  the  production  of  the  crop.  Nitrogen  is  the  heart ^ and  soul  of  the  problem 
of  growing  more  crops  and  cheaper  crops.  Take  any  nation  that  produces  large 
crop  yields  per  acre  and  you  will  find  that  the  nation  that  uses  the  most  nitrogen 
per  acre  grows  the  largest  crops. 

For  years  the  nations  of  Europe  have  been  depending  to  ^a  great  extent  upon 
supplies  of  nitrate  of  soda  obtained  from  Chile,  in  South  America.  Germany  alone 
imported  nearly  a  million  tons  of  this  salt  annually  before  the  war.  Then,  too,  the 
by-products  of  many  indus- 
tries furnish  a  quantity  of 
nitrogen,  but  all  this,  it  was 
realized,  furnished  but  a 
small  part  of  what  was 
required  to  combat  the  con- 
stantly rising  cost  of  pro- 
ducing food. 

For  years  it  was  the 
dream  and  life-ambition  of 
the  world's  greatest  scientists 
to  discover  how  to  make  the 
supplies  of  nitrogen  in  the 
air  available  to  plants  as 
food.  The  only  way  that 
this  could  be  done  in  nature 
was  through  the  agency  of 
bacteria  working  on  the  roots 
of  certain  plants,  such  as 
clovers,  but  this  process  was 


SUGAR  CANE  CROP  FERTILIZED  WITH  CYANAMID  MIXTURES. 
GROWN  IN  CALUMET,  LA. 


entirely  too  slow  for  practical  purposes  and  could  be  applied  on  only  a  small  acreage 
at  one  time.  The  free  nitrogen  of  the  air  cannot  be  utilized  directly  by  plants.  It 
must  first  be  converted  into  some  combination  with  other  chemicals,  as  a  solid  or 
liquid,  which  can  be  absorbed  by  the  plant.  Among  others  who  worked  on  the 
problem  of  fixing  atmospheric  nitrogen  were  two  German  chemists,  Doctors  Caro 
and  Frank,  who  found  that  a  compound  of  calcium  and  carbon  heated  to  a  high 
temperature  would  absorb  nitrogen  and  retain  it  in  a  form  that  could  be  applied  to 
the  soil  and  serve  as  a  food  for  plants. 

This  discovery  is  the  basis  of  the  Cyanamid  "Atmospheric  Nitrogen"  industry 
or  the  making  of  fertilizer  from  the  nitrogen  in  the  air.  After  the  discovery  was 
made  and  tested  on  the  laboratory  scale  it  took  several  years  to  put  it  on  a  practical 
basis,  as  can  well  be  imagined  when  it  is  understood  what  the  problems  involved 
were.  Besides  air  this  process  required  as  raw  materials  limestone  and  coke.  The 
limestone  must  be  burned  to  quicklime  and  the  quicklime  and  coke  must  be  fused 
together  to  form  calcium  carbide.  Only  the  most  powerful  electric  furnaces  are 
capable  of  performing  this  work.  Any  other  means  of  heating  is  far  from  adequate. 
For  instance,  the  hottest  flame  that  can  be  produced  by  the  burning  of  gas,  namely, 
the  oxy-hydrogen  blow-pipe  flame,  can  be  directed  against  a  stick  of  burnt  lime  without 
doing  anything  beyond  making  the  lime  glow  brilliantly,  thus  producing  the  caiciam 
or  lime-light  formerly  much  used  in  theaters  as  a  spot-light.  In  the  electric  furnaces, 
however,  the  lime  is  heated  so  powerfully  that  it  actually  melts  to  a  liquid,  and  in 


460 


STORY  OF  TAKING  FOOD  FROM  THE  AIR 


this  condition  it  dissolves  the  coke  with  which  it  is  mixed  and  the  compound  resulting 
is  calcium  carbide  which  can  be  run  off  from  the  interior  of  the  furnace  in  liquid  form 
At  the  cyanamid  plant  at  Niagara  Falls,  in  Canada,  there  are  seven  of  these 

great  carbide  furnaces,  each 
about  fifteen  feet  long  and 
half  as  wide  and  one-third 
as  deep.  We  all  have  some 
idea  of  how  much  heat  is  gen- 
erated in  the  ordinary  electric 
arc  light  such  as  is  used  for 
street  lighting.  In  the  car- 
bide furnace  the  carbon  pen- 
cil, instead  of  being  six  or 
eight  inches  long  and  as  large 
around  as  your  finger,  is  six 
feet  long  and  two  feet  in 
diameter.  There  are  three  of 
these  in  each  furnace,  and 
when  the  furnace  is  in  full 
action  it  can  be  imagined 
—  that  there  is  a  terrific  heat 

Two  OF  THE  CARBIDE  FURNACES  AND  ELECTRODE  REGULATORS    generated;   in  fact,  when  the 
.    ,  .  fused  lime  and  coke  come  out 

ol  the  furnace  in  the  form  of  molten  carbide  the  brightness  of  the  molten  material  is 

so  dazzling  that  one  cannot  look  at  it  with  the  naked  eyes  without  injury. 

Then  there  is  the  problem  of  producing  pure  nitrogen  gas,  that  is,  separating 

the  eighty  per  cent  of  nitrogen  in  the  air  from  the  twenty  per  cent  of  oxygen.     The 

latter  is  the  element  that  we  breathe  and  which  passes  into  the  body,  there  to  com- 
bine with   the  impurities 

resulting  from  the  various  life 

activities.      If   the  nitrogen 

and   the   oxygen  were   both 

allowed  to  act  upon  calcium 

carbide  the   oxygen   would 

burn  up  the  carbide  before 

the  nitrogen  could  be  fixed  in 

it,  hence  these  two  elements 

must  be   separated   and   all 

other  impurities  removed  so 

that   only   chemically   pure 

nitrogen   is   brought  to   the 

calcium  carbide  for  fixation. 

The  separation  is    accom- 
plished by  means  of  liquid 

air  machines.     This  industry, 

therefore,    not  only    utilizes 

the  greatest  heat  obtainable 

on  a  practical  scale,  but  it 

also  utilizes  the  greatest  cold. 


ONE  OF  THE  CARBIDE  MILLS 


While  the  electric  furnaces  produce  a  temperature  of 

over  4000  F.,  or  about  twice  as  hot  as  molten  cast-iron,  the  liquid  air  machines 
work  at  a  temperature  of  372°  F.  below  zero.  The  air  must  first  be  purified  and 
dried.  ^  It  is  then  compressed,  cooled  while  under  pressure,  and  then  expanded.  The 
expansion  lowers  its  temperature  considerably.  If  this  extra  cool  air  is  used  for 


STORY  OF  TAKING  FOOD  FROM  THE  AIR 


461 


cooling  another  batch  of  air  under  pressure,  the  latter  upon  expansion  becomes 
still  colder  than  the  first  batch  expanded.  By  repeating  this  operation  the  final 
temperature  of  372°  below  zero  is  reached,  at  which  the  air  liquifies. 

How  cold  this  is  can  be  seen  from  some  simple  experiments.  For  instance, 
if  a  dipper  full  of  the  liquid  air  is  drawn,  in  an  instant  the  outside  of  the  dipper  is 
covered  with  a  coating  of  frost  deposited  upon  it  from  the  surrounding  atmosphere. 
The  surrounding  air  is  so  much  hotter  than  the  liquid  air  that  the  liquid  boils  violently. 
If  a  piece  of  rubber  hose  is  held  in  the  liquid  air  for  eight  or  ten  seconds  and  then 
struck  with  a  hammer  the  rubber  flies  into  pieces  just  like  glass.  To  dip  one's  finger 
into  this  liquid  air  would  freeze  it  solid  in  a  second  and  would  be  as  disastrous  as 
dipping  it  in  red-hot  iron. 

When  the  liquid  air  is  allowed  to  warm  up  a  little,  the  nitrogen  gas  evaporates, 
while  the  oxygen  remains 
behind  in  the  liquid.  The 
pure  nitrogen  then  can  be 
pumped  into  the  fixation 
ovens. 

To  fix  the  nitrogen  in 
the  carbide  it  is  necessary  to 
cool  the  latter  after  it  comes 
from  the  electric  furnaces 
and  grind  it  to  a  very  fine 
powder.  This  powder  is  then 
placed  in  furnaces  that  look 
like  steel  barrels  but  are 
three  or  four  times  larger  than 
an  ordinary  barrel.  The 
oven  filled  with  calcium  car- 
bide is  then  electrically  heated 
with  a  carbon  rod  running 
through  the  center.  When 
the  temperature  is  about 
as  hot  as  that  of  molten  iron  the  pure  nitrogen  gas  from  the  liquid  air  plant  is  pumped 
in  and  allowed  to  act  on  the  calcium  carbide  for  about  a  day  and  a  half.  When  the 
carbide  has  absorbed  all  it  will  absorb  the  crude  cyanamid  formed  is  removed  from 
the  oven  as  a  single  large  cake  which  is  run  through  pulverizing  drums  and  then 
put  through  an  elaborate  process  of  refinement  and  finally  bagged  for  shipment 
in  carload  lots  to  fertilizer  factories  throughout  the  country. 

The  fertilizer  manufacturers  mix  the  cyanamid  with  other  ingredients  to  make 
a  balanced  plant  food  and  so  ship  it  to  farmers  for  feeding  their  crops.  In  1914 
7,500,000  tons  of  fertilizer  worth  $175,000,000  were  consumed  in  this  country.  This 
seems  like  a  large  quantity,  but  it  allows  only  a  scanty  application  per  acre  cultivated. 
Germany,  on  one-fourth  of  our  cultivated  acreage,  uses  almost  twice  as  much  fertilizer 
as  the  entire  United  States.  As  a  consequence  she  raises  30  bushels  of  wheat  where 
we  average  14  bushels  per  acre;  52  bushels  of  oats  where  we  average  30;  and  196 
bushels  of  potatoes  per  acre  where  we  raise  97  bushels  per  acre.  The  explanation 
is  simple,  German  farmers  pay  only  about  one-half  as  much  for  their  plant  food  as 
American  farmers  pay.  Where  the  German  farmer  gains  $2.00  to  $3.00  increase 
in  crop  from  fertilizer  that  costs  him  $1.00  the  American  farmer  pays  $2.00  for  the 
same  fertilizer,  which  leaves  him  less  profit  and  less  incentive  to  use  fertilizer. 

The  air-nitrogen  industry  in  the  United  States  is  said  to  be  considerably  handi- 
capped because  the  large  quantities  of  electricity  required  are  not  available  at  a  low 
enough  price.  There  are  excellent  water-power  sites  in  the  United  States  sufficient 


LIQUID  Am  PLANT 


462      STORY  OF  TAKING  FOOD  FROM  THE  AIR 


A  CARBIDE  COOLING  SHED 


CYANAMID  OVEN  ROOM 


STORY  OF  TAKING  FOOD  FROM  THE  AIR         463 


464         STORY  OF  TAKING  FOOD  FROM  THE  AIR 


SUGAR  BEET  CROP  FERTILIZED  WITH  CYANAMID  MIXTURES. 
GROWN  IN  CARO,  MICHIGAN 


to  furnish  many  times  the  required  power,  but  the  existing  water-power  laws  are 
so  burdensome  that  investors  will  not  put  their  money  into  power  development 
except  on  such  high  terms  that  the  power  is  much  dearer  than  it  can  be  bought  for 

in  other  countries.  Practi- 
cally every  civilized  country 
in  the  world,  except  the 
United  States,  had  one  or 
more  cyanamid  factories  in 
1916.  These  include  Ger- 
many, Austria  -  Hungary, 
Great  Britain,  France,  Italy, 
Switzerland,  Norway,  Swe- 
den, ^  Japan  and  Canada. 
Their  combined  output  is 
about  1,000,000  tons  per 
annum.  The  cyanamid  plant 
at  Niagara  Falls,  Ontario, 
which  was  established  in 
1909,  with  a  capacity  of 
10,000  tons,  had  a  capacity 
of  64,000  tons  per  annum  in 
1916.  It  utilizes  about 
30,000  electrical  horse-power 
twenty-four  hours  a  day,  and 

three  hundred  and  sixty-five  days  a  year.  Germany,  at  the  beginning  of  the  war, 
produced  about  30,000  tons  of  cyanamid;  in  1916  she  was  making  600,000  tons  a 
year.  She  is  using  it  both  to  grow  crops  and  to  make  explosives  for  her  guns. 

At  the  time  the  war  broke  out,  in  August,  1914,  Germany  was  importing  nearly 
one  million  tons  of  nitrate 
of  soda  per  annum  from 
Chile,  South  America.  This 
supply  was  immediately  cut 
off  by  enemy  fleets.  Not  only 
was  her  agriculture  thereby 
threatened  with  a  great 
decrease  in  crop  production 
but  her  supply  of  military 
explosives  was  also  threat- 
ened. Professor  Dr.  Lem- 
mermann,  a  famous  German 
scientist,  advised  his  govern- 
ment that  unless  the  nitro- 
gen shortage  were  made  good 
the  resulting  crop  shortage 
would  amount  to  3,300,000 
tons  of  grain.  But  if  people 
require  food,  guns  require 
powder,  and  no  powder  can 
be  made  without  nitric  acid. 
It  has  been  reported  on  good  authority  that  Germany  has  consumed  one  and 
one-third  million  pounds  of  powder  a  day  during  the  war.  To  make  one  pound  of 
powder  requires  one  and  one-half  pounds  of  nitric  acid,  so  that  Germany  required 
for  military  purposes  2,000,000  pounds  of  nitric  acid  per  day.  ™ 


COTTON  CROP  FERTILIZED  WITH  CYANAMID  MIXTURES. 
GROWN  IN  SUMTER,  S.  C. 


From  her  coke  ovena 


STORY  OF  TAKING  FOOD  FROM  THE  AIR         465 


to 

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£  2 


II 


466         STORY  OF  TAKING  FOOD  FROM  THE  AIR 

she  indeed  could  derive  some  nitrogen,  but  this  actually  furnished  only  about  one- 
fifth  of  her  total  requirements.  For  the  other  four-fifths  she  turned  to  atmos- 
pheric nitrogen.  For  it  is  also  true  that  this  remarkable  compound,  cyanamid,  which 
is  a  food  for  plants,  can  be  decomposed  by  high-steam  pressure  into  the  purest 
ammonia  gas.  The  ammonia  can  in  turn  be  oxidized  to  nitric  acid,  which  is  the 
basis  of  all  explosives.  Without  the  fixation  of  atmospheric  nitrogen  on  a  tremendous 
scale  there  is  no  doubt  that  Germany  would  have  become  helpless  before  her 
enemies  within  a  year  after  the  war  began,  for  no  nation  can  fight  unless  it  has 
sufficient  food  for  its  people  and  powder  for  its  guns. 

The  preservation  of  food  is  also  dependent  on  ammonia,  which  produces  the 
refrigerating  effect  in  the  numerous  cold  storage  houses  and  artificial  ice  plants  in 
this  country.  In  the  cold  storage  plants  alone  the  cold  produced  by  means  of 
ammonia  is  equal  to  750,000  tons  of  ice  consumed  per  day,  while  25,000,000  tons  of 
artificial  ice  are  produced  and  sold  as  such  per  annum.  Cyanarnid  ammonia  gas 
is  especially  valuable  for  this  purpose  on  account  of  its  high  degree  of  purity. 

Then,  too,  the  ammonia  gas  can  be  fixed  in  any  acid  desired,  for  instance,  in 
phosphoric  acid,  making  ammonium  phosphate,  a  fertilizer  of  unusual  merit,  or 
ammonium  sulphate,  another  fertilizer,  or  ammonium  nitrate,  an  explosive.  So, 
for  peace  or  war,  the  fixation  of  atmospheric  nitrogen  has  become  a  tremendous 
factor  in  the  life  of  nations. 

If  the  United  States  should  be  forced  into  war  with  a  foreign  power  it  would 
be  a  simple  matter  for  an  enemy  fleet  to  cut  off  our  large  importations  of  nitrate 
of  soda  from  Chile.  These  amount  to  about  700,000  tons  per  annum  in  normal  times 
and  at  present  about  900,000  tons  per  annum.  In  other  words,  we  would  be  short 
just  this  quantity  of  nitrogen  in  addition  to  the  quantity  that  would  be  required 
by  the  government  for  the  manufacture  of  military  explosives.  It  has  been  suggested 
that  our  coke-oven  industry  could  be  expanded  to  furnish  a  large  part  of  this  require- 
ment, but  even  with  the  largest  expansion  considered  practical  by  the  coke-oven 
people  within  the  next  several  years,  the  coke  ovens  would  not  be  able  to  supply  even 
one-third  of  our  requirements,  thus  leaving  a  large  balance  which  could  be  furnished 
only  by  the  establishment  of  a  large  nitrogen  industry  in  this  country. 


The  expression  "The  King  can  do  no  wrong"  has  been  widely  used  since  it 
first  caught  people's  fancy  at  the  time  of  the  explanation,  made  in  England,  that 
the  Ministers,  and  not  the  King,  were  responsible  for  mistakes  of  government. 

What  is  a  Drawbridge  Like  Today? 

We  have  all  read  of  the  castles  in  olden  days  into  which  the  owner  could  retire 
and  raise  a  drawbridge  across  a  ditch,  thus  putting  a  barrier  in  the  way  of  his  enemies. 

That  old  style  drawbridge,  with,  of  course,  many  improvements,  has  been 
adopted  in  these  modern  times  to  use  in  permitting  navigable  rivers  and  channels  to 
be  crossed  by  railroads  and  other  kinds  of  transportation,  without  preventing  the 
passage  of  vessels  up  and  down  the  rivers. 

Modern  drawbridges  across  rivers,  canals,  the  entrances  of  docks,  etc.,  are 
generally  made  to  open  vertically,  and  the  movable  portion  is  called  a  bascule,  balance 
or  lifting  bridge;  a  turning,  swivel  or  swing  bridge;  or  a  rolling  bridge,  in  accordance 
with  the  mode  in  which  it  is  made  to  open. 

Swing  bridges  are  usually  divided  into  two  parts  meeting  in  the  middle,  and 
each  moved  on  pivots  on  the  opposite  sides  of  the  channel,  or  they  may  move  as  a 
whole  on  a  pivot  in  the  middle  of  the  channel. 

Rolling  bridges  are  suspended  from  a  structure  high  above  the  water,  and  are 
propelled  backwards  and  forwards  by  means  of  rollers. 


WHAT  IS  A  DRAWBRIDGE  LIKE  TODAY 


467 


BASCULE  BRIDGE  OPEN* 


BASCULE  BRIDGE  CLOSED* 


The  advantages  of  this  type  of  bridge  are  that  the  entire  width  of  the  channel  is 
available  for  navigation,  and  the  draw  may  be  opened  and  closed  more  readily  than  the 
Swing  type.  *  Courtesy  of  The  Strauss  Bascule  Bridge  Co. 


The  Story  of  a  Deep  Sea  Monster* 

The  early  day  was  blue  and  silver;  one  of  those  colorful  mornings  peculiar  to 
southern  Florida.  Sandwiched  between  the  earth  and  the  turquoise  sky,  the  Atlantic 
lay  gleaming  like  a  huge  silver  wafer  in  the  sunlight.  Not  the  faintest  suggestion 
of  a  ripple  marred  its  shining  surface. 

Suddenly  out  of  the  stillness  of  the  silver  water  a  huge  black  fin  was  lifted,  and 
a  little  group  of  men  lounging  on  the  deck  of  an  idle  fishing  craft  drew  near  the  rail 
and  used  their  glasses. 

"Shark,"  remarked  the  captain  pleasantly  after  a  moment's  scrutiny.  "Who 
wants  to  go  out  with  me  for  a  little  fun?" 

The  hastily  lowered  lifeboat  pointed  a  slim  nose  toward  the  large  black  shape 
thrashing  about  in  the  shallow  water.  Three  men  were  in  the  boat — Captain  Charles 
H.  Thompson  of  the  yacht  "Samoa,"  one  of  the  yacht's  crew,  and  a  winter  visitor 
to  southern  Florida.  As  they  drew  near,  the  sailor  took  one  look  at  the  gigantic 
creature  and  yelled  to  the  captain : 

"For  heaven's  sake,  man,  don't  harpoon  that  thing;  we  will  be  crushed  like  an 
eggshell!"  ^ 

Poised  in  the  bow  of  the  boat,  harpoon  in  hand,  stood  the  captain,  and  as  they 
drew  alongside  there  was  a  flash;  the  steel  glittered  for  a  moment  in  the  sunlight, 
then  sank  into  the  huge  black  bulk.  Simultaneously  the  little  boat  spun  around 
and  shot  out  toward  the  Gulf  Stream  like  an  agitated  and  very  erratic  rocket,  flinging 
great  sheets  of  spray  high  into  the  air  as  it  sped. 

Thus  began  a  thirty-nine  hours'  ride  filled  with  wildest  thrills,  during  which 
time  Captain  Thompson  battled  with  the  fish,  the  sailor  bailed  the  boat  unceasingly, 
lest  they  be  swamped,  and  the  tourist  raised  an  anxious  and  eloquent  voice  to  high 
heaven.  The  men  were  without  food  the  entire  time,  sharing  only  a  small  bottle 
of  water  among  them. 

The  news  of  the  struggle  spread  rapidly,  and  soon  hundreds  of  interested 
spectators  gathered  on  the  trestle  of  the  East  Coast  sea-extension  railway.  Scores 
of  times  the  men  in  the  boat  escaped  death  only  by  a  miracle,  as  the  wildly  thrashing 
black  tail  missed  them  but  by  a  hair's  breadth.  Finally,  after  two  days  and  one 
night,  the  monster  was  worn  out,  and  the  triumphant  captor  managed  to  fasten  it 
to  the  trestle  work  on  Knight's  Key,  where,  after  a  few  hours'  rest,  it  wigwagged  a 
festive  tail,  smashing  the  large  pilings  as  though  they  were  toothpicks.  After  another 
battle  the  fish  was  firmly  tied  up  once  more,  this  time  to  the  yacht  "Samoa;"  and 
again  it  waved  a  wicked  tail,  disabling  the  thirty-ton  yacht  by  smashing  her  propeller 
and  breaking  the  cables.  A  tug  was  then  summoned,  and  the  big  fellow  was  towed 
one  hundred  and  ten  miles  to  Miami,  Florida,  where  it  was  viewed  by  thousands  of 
people. 

Five  harpoons  and  one  hundred  and  fifty-one  bullets  were  used  in  subduing  the 
monster,  and  it  took  five  days  to  finally  kill  it. 

It  was  thought  at  first  the  creature  was  a  whale,  but  later  it  was  classified  as  a 
fish,  for  it  breathed  through  gills  of  which  there  were  five  in  number.  Upon  careful 
examination  it  seemed  probable  that  it  was  a  baby  of  its  species,  as  the  backbone 
was  of  a  cartilaginous  nature,  a  condition  found  only  in  a  young  creature;  in  a  full- 
grown  one  this  develops  into  true  bone.  That  it  was  a  deep-sea  fish  was  indicated 
by  the  small  eye,  which  was  about  the  size  of  a  silver  dollar.  The  pressure  of  the 
water  is  so  great  at  the  bottom  of  the  ocean  that  were  the  eyes  large  they  would 

*  Courtesy  of  The  American  Magaz'""«v 

(468) 


THE  STORY  OF  A  DEEP  SEA  MONSTER 


469 


470 


THE  STORY  OF  A  DEEP  SEA  MONSTER 


be  ruptured.  That  the  pupil  did  not  dilate  and  contract  seems  additional  proof 
that  the  fish  must  have  lived  at  a  depth  of  probably  fifteen  hundred  or  two  thousand 
feet,  where  there  is  little  light. 

It  is  generally  believed  that  some  volcanic  eruption  drove  the  fish  to  the  sur- 
face where,  owing  to  the  difference  in  water  pressure,  the  swim-bladders  burst, 
making  it  impossible  for  him  to  return  to  his  level. 


What  is  an  Armored  Railway  Car  Like? 

The  armored  car  shown  in  this  picture  is  the  first  of  a  new  type  of  armored  car 
to  be  constructed  by  the  United  States.  It  was  designed  under  the  direction  of  the 
Board  of  Engineers  of  the  U.  S.  Army,  and  was  constructed  by  the  Standard  Steel 


THE  RAPID  FIRE-GUN  HERE  SHOWN  is  A  MODEL  OF  A  THREE- 
INCH  FIELD  GUN  MOUNTED  UPON  A  SPECIAL  CARRIAGE.  THE 
WELL  IN  WHICH  THE  GUN  is  LOCATED  MAY  ALSO  BE  USED  AS  A 
FIGHTING  TOP  FOR  TROOPS  ARMED  WITH  RIFLES  OR  MACHINE 
GUNS. 

Courtesy  of  the  Railway  Age  Gazette  and  Standard  Steel  Car  Co. 

Car  Company,  Pittsburgh,  Pa.,  at  their  Hammond,  Ind.,  plant.  The  car  was 
designed  and  built  within  twenty-seven  days. 

The  car  consists  of  heavy  steel  plate  structure,  erected  upon  a  flat  car  of  standard 
type.  The  interior  is  divided  into  three  compartments.  The  end  compartments  are 
for  use  of  troops  operating  machine  guns  and  rifles  through  the  port-holes  shown  on 
side  of  car.  The  center  compartment,  which  is  not  the  full  height  of  the  car,  is  used 
for  ammunition  storage,  and  is  capable  of  holding  a  large  quantity  of  ammunition, 
either  for  small  arms  or  for  the  rapid-fire  gun  which  is  mounted  on  top  of  the  car  The 
rapid-fire  gun  here  shown  is  a  model  of  a  three-inch  field  gun  mounted  upon  a  special 
carriage.  The  well  in  which  the  gun  is  located  may  also  be  used  as  a  fighting  top  for 
troops  armed  with  rifles  or  machine  guns. 

This  car  is  know  as  a  light-armored  car.  It  is  armed  with  a  three-inch  rapid-fire 
gun,  two  machine  guns  and  any  number  of  rifles  which  the  troops  occupying  it  may 
carry.  The  service  for  which  this  car  is  intended  is  primarily  to  guard  railroads  and 
depots  adjacent  to  railroads.  It  is  not  ordinarily  to  be  employed  in  aggressive  move- 


WHAT  IS  AN  ARMORED  RAILWAY  CAR  LIKE      471 


472      WHAT  IS  AN  ARMORED  RAILWAY  CAR  LIKE 

ments.  In  effect,  it  is  a  movable  block-house  which  may  be  used  at  any  point  along 
the  line,  or  it  may  be  used  as  a  retreat  for  troops  when  necessary.  It  may  also  be 
used  for  transporting  troops  past  danger  points,  and  for  transporting  explosives  or 
other  perishable  material  which  might  be  damaged  by  fire  from  the  ends.  The  car 
as  constructed  weighs  86,200  pounds.  It  is  47  feet  long,  9  feet  3  inches  wide,  and 
7  feet  high  at  the  ends.  When  used  for  transportation  of  troops,  it  will  accommodate 
a  company  of  infantry  seated  on  camp  stools  or  benches.  When  used  for  patrol  pur- 


THE  INTERIOR  is  DIVIDED  INTO  THREE  COMPARTMENTS 

Courtesy  of  the  Railway  Age  Gazette  and  Standard  Steel  Car  Co. 

poses,  there  would  not  be  more  than  twelve  men  in  the  car,  to  operate  the  rapid-fire 
gun  and  machine  guns. 

The  car  was  shipped  to  the  Sandy  Hook  proving  grounds  to  be  equipped  with 
rapid-fire  guns  and  ammunition  and  thoroughly  tested  and  inspected  by  the  Engineer 
and  Ordnance  Officer  of  the  U.  S.  Army. 

What  is  an  "  Electric  Eel "? 

This  is  an  eel  abundant  in  the  fresh  waters  of  Brazil  and  the  Guianas,  which 
possesses  organs  capable  of  developing  a  strong  electric  current  and  thus  of  giving 
a  violent  shock  to  any  one  touching  the  eels.  These  organs  replace  the  lower 
muscles  along  the  sides  of  the  tail.  The  eels  can  be  taken  by  driving  horses  into  the 
water  to  be  shocked  and  seizing  them  when  thus  weakened. 


The  Story  of  Salt* 


Salt  is  a  chemical  compound  composed  of  two  elements,  sodium  and  chlorine. 
Chemically  it  is  known  as  sodium  chloride. 

It  is  one  of  the  things  which  comes  into  our  lives  daily,  perhaps  more  than  any 


A  SALT  WELL 

other,  with  the  exception  of  water.  Probably  no  other  thing  than  water  is  used 
more  by  all  civilized  people  than  salt. 

Nature  provides  salt  for  us  in  three  different  forms.  First,  in  sea  water  in 
solution;  second,  in  salt  springs;  and  third,  in  the  form  of  salt  rock. 

From  time  immemorial  man  has  obtained  salt  from  sea  water.  This  is  still 
being  done  on  our  sea  coasts,  but  the  salt  obtained  by  evaporating  the  water  is  very 
crude  and  usually  contains  many  impurities. 

It  has  been  possible  to  obtain  a  large  supply  of  salt  from  what  are  known  as 
salt  springs.  These  springs  are  usually  the  result  of  water  flowing  over  a  deposit  of 

*  Illustrations  by  courtesy  of  Diamond  Crystal  Salt  Co. 

(473) 


474 


THE  STORY  OF  SALT 


salt  rock.  The  amount  of  salt  obtained  from  evaporating  this  spring  water  is,  how- 
ever, so  small  that  salt  springs  are  an  impractical  source  of  supply  when  it  comes 
to  making  salt  for  commercial  purposes. 

Rock  salt  forms  the  most  common  and  practical  source  of  supply.  It  is  found  in 
all  parts  of  the  world  and  reasonably  near  the  surface.  The  deposit  is  said  to  be 
what  is  left  of  ancient  salt  seas.  In  the  United  States  the  largest  deposits  of  salt 
are  found  in  the  states  of  Michigan,  New  York,  Ohio,  Utah,  Louisiana,  Kansas, 


SALT  HEATERS  AND  FILTERS 

Texas  and  California.  The  above-mentioned  states  are  the  largest  producers  of  salt 
in  this  country. 

One  of  the  largest  sources  of  salt  supply  in  Europe  is  at  Wielizka  in  Poland. 
This  deposit  of  salt  is  said  to  be  the  largest  in  the  world,  the  bed  of  salt  rock  being 
500  miles  long,  20  miles  wide  and  1,200  feet  thick.  Some  of  the  salt  mines  in 
Poland  are  so  extensive  that  it  is  said  some  of  the  miners  spend  all  of  their  lives  in 
them,  never  coming  to  the  surface  of  the  earth. 

Most  of  the  deposits  of  salt  rock  contain  impurities  which  need  to  be  removed 
before  the  salt  is  fit  for  use  commercially;  however,  some  deposits  show  a  very  pure 
salt  rock  and  when  ground  up  this  rock  salt  is  suitable  for  table  use.  In  general, 
however,  the  salt  made  from  crude  salt  rock  is  only  fit  for  the  crudest  commercial 
uses.  The  most  common  impurity  is  gypsum  and  it  is  necessary  to  remove  this 
gypsum  before  the  salt  can  be  considered  pure. 


THE  STORY  OF  SALT 


475 


476 


THE  STORY  OF  SALT 


The  general  way  of  obtaining  salt  from  the  earth  is  by  means  of  salt  wells.  These 
wells  are  drilled  in  the  same  way  that  wells  are  bored  for  oil  and  gas.  A  pipe  about 
six  inches  in  diameter  is  lowered  to  the  surface  of  the  salt  rock  and  then  an  inside 
pipe  is  put  down,  water  is  forced  down  between  the  two  pipes  and  the  pressure  exerted 
brings  up  the  dissolved  rock  or  salt  brine  through  the  inside  pipe. 

As  the  salt  brine  reaches  the  surface  the  salt  is  extracted  from  it  in  various  ways. 
At  present  the  crude  open -pan  system,  where  the  brine  was  poured  into  open  pans 
and  fires  were  built  below  the  pans,  is  almost  obsolete.  The  most  practical  methods 
of  refining  salt  today  are  known  as  the  Grainer,  Vacuum  Pan  and  Alberger  systems. 

The  Grainer  system  is  similar  in  its  operation  to  the  old  open-pan  system.  The 
brine  is  run  through  long,  shallow  tanks  and  the  heat  is  applied  through  steam  pipes 


BOLTERS  FOR  SIFTING  SALT 

inside  of  the  pan.  The  salt  settles  to  the  bottom  of  the  pan  and  large  rakes  operated 
either  by  hand  or  machinery  collect  the  salt. 

In  the  Vacuum  Pan  process  tiny  cubes  of  salt  are  formed  and  settle  to  the  bottom 
of  the  pan  in  which  a  vacuum  has  been  created.  The  salt  is  then  drained  out  and  is 
ready  for  clrying. 

Variations  of  the  two  above  processes  make  possible  the  production  of  certain 
grades  of  table  salt.  Oftentimes  the  brine  is  relieved  of  impurities  through  the 
action  of  certain  chemicals.  In  some  instances  a  chemical  known  as  "barium 
chloride"  is  used,  but  the  wisdom  of  this  process  has  been  much  questioned,  owing 
to  the  fact  that  barium  chloride  is  a  deadly  poison. 

The  Alberger  system  of  salt  manufacture  is  a  mechanical  process  which  subjects 
the  salt  brine  to  a  much  higher  temperature  and  removes  the  impurities  by  means 
of  mechanical  filters.  This  process  is  known  to  make  a  very  pure  salt  and  has  been 


THE  STORY  OF  SALT 


477 


FILLING  SALT  BAGS 


478 THE  STORY  OF  SALT 

used  for  some  time  as  a  practical  method  for  manufacturing  high-grade  dairy  and 
table  salt.  Unlike  the  other  two  common  methods  of  making  salt,  it  forms  tiny  salt 
flakes  instead  of  the  usual  cubes  or  lumps. 

After  manufacturers  obtain  the  salt  from  the  brine  they  usually  put  it  through 
drying  processes.  After  drying,  the  salt  is  sifted  and  the  fine  table  salt  is  separated 
from  the  coarser  products.  When  salt  is  sifted  it  is  ready  for  packing  in  bags  or 
packages  suitable  for  shipment  to  the  consumer. 

According  to  recent  government  reports,  it  is  estimated  that  the  average  con- 
sumption of  salt  per  capita  for  all  purposes  is  about  100  pounds  per  year.  The  salt 
industry  is  now  said  to  have  reached  a  very  stable  basis  and  the  demand  for  salt  in 
the  United  States  is  practically  all  supplied  by  American  manufacturers.  Salt  can 
be  put  to  a  great  many  uses  in  addition  to  the  usual  requirements  for  table  and 
cooking.  It  is  used  by  food  manufacturers  and  performs  highly  important  functions 
in  certain  commercial  fields. 


Why  do  We  Call  it  "  Denatured  Alcohol "? 

Under  a  law  passed  by  the  United  States  Congress  in  1907,  on  alcohol  intended 
for  use  as  fuel  or  for  illuminating  purposes,  or  other  mechanical  employment,  the 
internal  tax  need  not  be  paid.  But  to  avoid  taxation  it  must  be  rendered  unfit  for 
drinking  by  the  addition  of  such  unpalatable  substances  as  wood  alcohol,  pyridin, 
benzola,  sulphuric  ether  or  animal  oil.  Thus  treated,  it  is  spoken  of  as  denatured. 

What  is  the  Difference  Between  a  Cruiser  and  a  Battleship? 

A  cruiser  is  a  vessel  built  to  secure  speed  and  fuel  capacity  at  the  expense  of 
armor  and  battery  strength. 

The  modem  cruiser  may  be  regarded  as  the  offspring  of  the  frigate  of  the 
eighteenth  and  nineteenth  centuries.  The  later  construction  has  been  designed  for 
a  minimum  speed  of  twenty-five  knots  an  hour,  with  a  possible  attainment  of  thirty 
knots  or  over,  under  favorable  conditions. 

The  battleship  and  one  form  of  cruiser  were  evolved  from  the  conflicting  opinions 
of  two  opposite  schools  of  design.  The  battleship  is  the  expression  of  the  thoughts 
of  those  who  stood  for  extremely  developed  battery  power,  great  thickness  of  armor 
plate,  and  moderate  speed.  The  cruiser  is  the  result  of  the  triumph  of  those  who 
contended  for  high  speed  at  the  sacrifice  of  heavy  armor  protection  and  excessive 
battery  strength. 

The  armored  cruiser  was  the  particular  development  of  the  antagonistic  views 
prevailing  among  naval  architects.  The  type  of  this  class  in  the  United  States  naTy 
was  the  "  Brooklyn,"  which  figured  prominently  in  the  war  with  Spain  in  1898. 

Recently  the  armored  cruiser  has  been  superseded  by  the  battle  cruiser.  The 
armor  protection  in  this  type  of  ship  is  much  lower  than  that  of  the  battleship,  while 
the  ordnance,  on  the  other  hand,  is  practically  the  same.  High  speed,  wide  radius  of 
action  and  great  battery  strength  are  the  characteristics  of  this  type;  and  to  meet 
these  requirements  the  battle  cruiser  is  planned  of  a  size  considerably  larger  than  the 
battleship. 

The  protected  cruiser  is  a  later  development  of  naval  construction.  Its  distin- 
guishing features  are  certain  modifications  in  the  distribution  of  the  mass  of  protective 
armor  of  the  ship. 

Light  cruisers  are  vessels  of  from  1,500  to  7,500  tons,  used  in  scouting,  as  commerce 
destroyers,  et',.  They  are  outside  the  armored  class. 


A  CRUISER  AND  A  BATTLESHIP 


479 


480 


A  CRUISER  AND  A  BATTLESHIP 


111 


The  Story  of  the  Growth  of  the 
Motor  Truck* 

While  exact  dates  are  not  easily  obtainable,  it  is  thought  to  be  quite  within  the 
bounds  of  reasonable  accuracy  to  say  that  the  motor  truck  only  began  to  be  recognized 
as  a  practical  vehicle  for  commercial  purposes  in  1905. 

Today  ^rnotor  vehicles,  both  pleasure  and  commercial,  are  such  a  common  sight 
in  every  city  and  town,  and  even  throughout  the  rural  districts,  that  one  can 
scarcely  believe  that  they  were  a  novelty  such  a  little  time  ago. 

The  statistics  show,  however,  that  in  1906  the  total  registrations  of  both  pleasure 


lit 


ONE  OP  THE  EARLIEST  GASOLINE  TRUCKS 

and  commercial  vehicles,  as  reported  by  the  various  states,  was  48,000 — 'about  one 
month's  production  today  of  one  well-known  pleasure-car  maker. 

In  1915  the  registrations  totaled  nearly  2,500,000,  and  every  day  has  added 
to  the  number. 

It  can  be  truthfully  said  that  the  pleasure  car  is  the  father  of  the  truck  or 
Commercial  car. 

The  application  of  the  internal  combustion  engine  to  the  use  of  propelling  vehicles 
was  the  beginning  of  a  new  era  in  that  world.  The  idea,  born,  one  might  say,  with 
the  new  century,  has  already  done  more  to  revolutionize  transportation  than  all  of 
the  inventions  of  all  the  centuries  that  have  gone  before. 

The  automobile,  first  looked  upon  as  a  freak,  then  "a  rich  man's  plaything.* 

*  Illustrations  by  courtesy  of  the  General  Motors  Truck  Co. 
»  (481) 


482      STORY  OF  GROWTH  OF  THE  MOTOR  TRUCK 

has  in  a  few  years  come  to  be  recognized  as  a  necessity,  and  literally  millions  of 
people  are  employed  in  its  production  and  dependent  on  the  industry  for  support. 

To  trace  the  ramifications  of  the  industry  back  through  the  mills,  mines  and 
factories  that  produce  the  iron,  steel,  copper,  brass,  zinc,  aluminum,  lead,  leather, 
lumber,  glass,  celluloid,  etc.,  would  make  a  long  and  interesting  story,  but  this 
chapter  deals  with  the  motor  vehicle  as  a  commercial  car  or  truck  and  the  part  it  is 
playing  in  transportation  of  the  world's  goods. 

While  the  first  commercial  vehicles  to  come  into  use  were  electrically  propelled, 
and  while  the  electric  truck  has  become  a  factor  in  the  large  cities,  the  gasoline  power 
vehicles  are,  as  yet,  the  dominant  factor. 

At  the  first,  business  men  were  slow  to  take  up  the  use  of  trucks  for  delivery 
and  hauling  purposes  and  one  of  the  specialties  of  early  factories  was  the  making  of 


A  1907  MODEL  SIGHT-SEEING  CAR 

"sight-seeing"  cars  which  were  sold  to  enterprising  individuals  in  cities  and  summer 
resorts  for  the  purpose  of  showing  visitors  the  sights.  These  wagons  b(  came  popular 
throughout  the  country  and  are  still  being  used  in  many  places. 

Little  by  little,  however,  progressive  business  men  saw  the  advantages  to  be 
gained  by  motor  delivery  and  the  motor  truck  began  to  gain  favor.  Several  of  the 
pleasure-car  manufacturers  took  advantage  of  the  awakening  interest  and  added  a 
commercial  vehicle  section  to  their  plants. 

Others  began  to  see  visions  of  the  day  when  horses  would  no  longer  be  used  for 
other  than  strictly  farm  work,  and  motor-truck  factories  sprang  up  here  and  there, 
even  faster  than  pleasure-car  plants. 

Like  the  seed  mentioned  in  the  parable  of  the  sower,  some  fell  on  good  ground 
and  grew  to  produce  a  bountiful  harvest,  but  many  withered  by  the  wayside. 

In  the  early  days  of  the  motor-truck  industry  men  bought  the  fini?hed  vehicle, 
but  later  on  the  practice  of  selling  chasses  only  became  popular,  and  while  today 
come  manufacturers  cater  to  the  body  trade,  a  large  percentage  of  trucks  are  sold 


STORY  OF  GROWTH  OF  THE  MOTOR  TRUCK 


483 


STORY  OF  GROWTH  OF  THE  MOTOR  TRUCK 


to  the  purchaser  without  the  body,  this  being  built  by  a  local  builder,  the  truck 

manufacturer  furnishing  a  body  builder's  blue-print. 

As  in  everything  else,  it  has  taken  time  to  overcome  the  faults  of  the  early  trucks. 

Most  all  trucks  above  1,500  pounds  capacity  are  equipped  with  solid  rubber  tires, 

and  while  the  solid  rubber 
tires  and  the  springs  on  the 
trucks  give  a  great  deal  of 
resiliency,  it  was  discovered 
that  the  steady  pounding 
over  all  kinds  of  pavements 
soon  racked  a  truck  to 
pieces  and  that  pleasure-car 
practice  could  not  be  fol- 
lowed successively  in  build- 
ing motor  trucks. 

In  the  earlier  days  truck 
buyers  made  many  mistakes 
in  selecting  the  size  or 
capacity  of  trucks.  Some 
made  the  mistake  of  buying 
trucks  too  light  for  their 
work.  Others  selected  trucks 
5-ToN  TRUCK— 1913-14  large  enough  to  provide  for 

exceptional  or  emergency 

loads,  and  would,  for  example,  buy  a  truck  of  3^-tons  capacity  when  90  per  cent  of 

their  hauling  was  loads  not  exceeding  1^  or  2  tons.    Thus  they  not  only  had  a  greater 

investment  than  necessary  in  the  truck  itself,  but  were  paying  an  exclusive  charge  in 

the  way  of  operating  costs  and  depreciation. 

But  the  experimental  days  have  passed,  both  in  thp  manufacture  of  motor  trucks 


LATEST  %-ToN  MODEL 


STORY  OF  GROWTH  OP  THE  MOTOR  TRUCK      485 


\ 


486      STORY  OF  GROWTH  OF  THE  MOTOR  TRUCK 


A  13^-ToN  TRUCK  OF  THE  LATEST  MODEL  DUMPING 


A  !>£-ToN  TRUCK  OF  THE  LATEST  MODEL  LOADING 


STORY  OF  GROWTH  OF  THE  MOTOR  TRUCK      487 


; 


I 


REAR  END  CONSTRUCTION  OF  A  MODERN  5-ToN  TRUCK 


A  3>^-ToN  TRUCK  OP  THE  LATEST  MODEL  IN  ACTIVE  SERVICE 


488      STORY  OF  GROWTH  OF  THE  MOTOR  TRUCK 


STORY  OF  GROWTH  OF  THE  MOTOR  TRUCK      489 


and  in  their  adaption  to  various  lines  of  work.  If  the  buyer  has  not  determined  by 
experience  and  investigation  the  kind  and  capacity  of  truck  he  should  use,  the  older 
manufacturers  are  able  to  step  in  and  analyze  the  work  to  be  done  and  to  intelligently 
recommend  to  the  buyer  what  he  should  have. 

That  motor  trucks  not  only  furnish  cheaper  transportation  than  horse-drawn 
vehicles,  but  greatly  extend  the  radius  of  operation,  is  quite  generally  conceded. 
This  is  shown  by  the  enormous  increase  in  the  demand  for  motor  trucks  in  all  lines 
of  business  where  goods  of  any  kind  are  to  be  moved  over  any  considerable  distance. 


CHASSIS  OF  THE  LATEST  MODEL  33^-ToN  TRUCK 

With  motor  trucks,  merchants  have  extended  their  deliveries  to  reach  territory 
they  could  not  touch  under  the  horse-delivery  system. 

Market  gardeners,  who  must  have  their  product  in  the  city  markets  early  and 
have  it  fresh,  can  now  sell  their  high-priced  land  adjoining  the  cities  and  go  miles  back 
in  the  country  where  as  good  ground  can  be  bought  for  from  one-tenth  to  one-fourth 
the  price  their  suburban  property  will  bring — and  still  be  closer  to  market  with  their 
motor  trucks  than  they  were  before  with  their  horses. 

Contractors  can  transport  material  long  distances  and  save  both  time  and 
money.  Dairymen  collect  milk  over  a  radius  of  thirty  or  forty  miles  and  get  it  to 
market  fresh.  Freight  and  passenger  lines  are  possible  with  motor  trucks  where  a 
steam  railroad  or  trolley  system  would  not  be  practicable. 

In  short,  the  motor  truck  is  revolutionizing  transportation.  As  made  today  by 
the  leading  manufacturers,  it  is  simple,  durable  and  easy  to  operate  and  care  for. 


What  is  a  Diving  Bell? 

Diving,  aside  from  the  pleasure  afforded  to  good  swimmers,  is  important  in 
majiy  different  industries,  particularly  in  fishing  for  pearls,  corals,  sponges,  etc. 

Without  the  aid  of  artificial  appliances  a  skilful  diver  may  remain  under  water 
for  two,  or  even  three  minutes;  accounts  of  longer  periods  are  doubtful  or  absurd. 


490 


WHAT  IS  A  DIVING  BELL 


WHAT  IS  A  DIVING  BELL 491 

Various  methods  have  been  proposed  and  engines  contrived  to  render  diving  more 
safe  and  easy.  The  great  object  in  all  these  is  to  furnish  the  diver  with  fresh  air, 
without  which  he  must  either  make  but  a  short  stay  under  water  or  perish. 

Diving  bells  have  been  used  very  effectively.  A  diving  bell  is  a  contrivance  for 
the  purpose  of  enabling  persons  to  descend,  and  to  remain,  below  the  surface  of 
water  for  a  length  of  time,  to  perform  various  operations,  such  as  examining  the 
foundations  of  bridges,  blasting  rocks,  recovering  treasure  from  sunken  vessels,  etc. 

Diving  bells  have  been  made  of  various  forms,  more  especially  in  that  of  a  bell 
or  hollow  truncated  cone,  with  the  smaller  end  closed,  and  the  larger  one,  which  is 
placed  lowermost,  open. 

The  air  contained  within  these  vessels  prevents  them  from  being  filled  with 
water  on  submersion,  so  that  the  diver  may  descend  in  them  and  breathe  freely  for  a 
long  time  provided  he  can  be  furnished  with  a  new  supply  of  fresh  air  when  the  con- 
tained air  becomes  vitiated  by  respiration.  This  is  done  by  means  of  a  flexible  tube, 
through  which  air  is  forced  into  the  bell. 

A  form,  called  the  " nautilus,"  has  been  invented  which  enables  the  occupants, 
and  not  the  attendants  above,  to  raise  or  sink  the  bell,  move  it  about  at  pleasure,  or 
raise  great  weights  with  it  and  deposit  them  in  any  desired  spot. 

How  are  Harbors  Dredged  Out? 

There  are  several  forms  of  mechanical,  power-operated  dredges.  One  of  the 
most  common  is  the  "clam-shell"  dredge,  consisting  of  a  pair  of  large,  heavy  iron 
jaws,  hinged  at  the  back,  in  general  form  resembling  a  pair  of  huge  clam  shells.  This 
with  its  attachments  is  called  the  grapple.  In  operation  it  is  lowered  with  open  jaws, 
and  by  its  own  weight  digs  into  the  ground  that  is  to  be  excavated.  Traction  is  then 
made  on  the  chains  controlling  the  jaws,  which  close;  the  grapple  is  hoisted  to  the 
surface  and  its  contents  discharged  into  scows  alongside  the  dredge. 

The  dipper  dredge,  an  exclusively  American  type,  has  a  bucket  rigidly  attached 
to  a  projecting  timber  arm.  In  operation  the  bucket  is  lowered  and  made  to  take 
a  curving  upward  cut,  thus  dipping  up  the  bottom  material,  which  is  discharged 
through  the  hinged  bottom  of  the  bucket.  The  pump  or  suction  dredge  operates  by 
means  of  a  flexible  pipe  connected  with  a  powerful  centrifugal  pump.  The  pipe  is 
lowered  into  contact  with  the  bottom  to  be  excavated  and  the  material  is  pumped 
into  hopper  barges  or  into  a  hopper-well  in  the  dredge  itself. 

The  center  ladder  bucket  dredge  operates  by  means  of  an  endless  chain  of  buckets 
moving  over  an  inclined  plane,  which  in  structure  is  a  strong  iron  ladder,  one  end  of 
which  is  lowered  to  the  sea  bottom.  The  steel  buckets  scoop  up  the  material  at  the 
bottom  of  the  ladder,  which  they  then  ascend,  and  are  discharged  by  becoming 
inserted  at  the  upper  end  of  the  ladder.  This  dredge  is  the  only  one  found  satisfactory 
in  excavating  rock. 

How  is  a  Razor  Blade  Made? 

The  best  scissors,  penknives,  razors  and  lancets  are  made  of  cast  steel.  Table 
knives,  plane  irons  and  chisels  of  a  very  superior  kind  are  made  of  shear  steel,  while 
common  steel  is  wrought  up  into  ordinary  cutlery. 

In  making  razors,  the  workman,  being  furnished  with  a  bar  of  cast  steel,  forges 
his  blade  from  it.  After  being  brought  into  true  shape  by  filing,  the  blade  is  exposed 
to  a  cherry-red  heat  and  instantly  quenched  in  cold  water.  The  blade  is  then  tem- 
pered by  first  brightening  one  side  and  then  heating  it  over  a  fire  free  from  flame 
and  smoke,  until  the  bright  surface  acquires  a  straw  color  (or  it  may  be  tempered 
differently).  It  is  again  quenched,  and  is  then  ready  for  being  ground  and  polished 


The  Story  of  the  Tunnels  Under  the 
Hudson  River* 

The  building  of  the  Hudson  River  tunnels  was  probably  one  of  the  most  daring 
engineering  feats  ever  accomplished.  As  is  well  known,  the  Hudson  River,  for  the 
length  of  Manhattan  Island,  is  approximately  a  mile  wide,  reducing  in  width  at  the 
Palisades  north  of  Hoboken.  In  consequence  of  the  unusual  geographical  situation, 
all  trunk  lines  and  other  transit  facilities  in  New  Jersey  terminate  on  the  westerly 
shore  of  the  Hudson,  and  passengers  were  of  necessity  compelled  to  use  ferries  to 
reach  New  York.  ^  A  conservative  estimate,  which  was  confirmed  by  various  counts, 
indicates  that,  prior  to  the  construction  of  the  tubes,  the  annual  passenger  traffic 
between  New  Jersey  and  New  York  was  125,000,000,  and  to  handle  this  great  volume 
of  traffic  the  transportation  companies  assembled  in  the  Hudson  River  a  fleet  of 
rapid  ferry  boats  and  maintained  them  up  to  the  highest  and  most  modern  standards. 
But  this  very  expeditious  ferry  service  was  not  enough,  and  for  many  years  there 
was  a  demand  for  facilities  for  more  rapid  transportation  of  the  tremendous  popula- 
tion residing  in  the  suburban  district  of  New  Jersey  tributary  to  New  York  City. 
As  far  back  as  1873,  a  company  had  been  organized  to  construct  a  tunnel  under  the 
river,  but  had  met  with  numerous  and  most  discouraging  difficulties  and  obstacles, 
so  that  it  was  finally  compelled  to  abandon  the  work,  although  it  succeeded  in  build- 
ing a  considerable  length  of  structure.  Efforts  were  made  at  various  times  after 
that  date  to  revive  the  work,  with  little  or  no  results.  In  1902  it  was  resumed,  how- 
ever, and  a  few  years  later  was  pushed  to  a  successful  end. 

During  the  undertaking,  more  than  40,000  men  were  engaged  in  air-pressure 
work  and  there  were  many  thousand  more  who  did  not  work  under  air  pressure. 
This  vast  army  of  men  consisted  of  all  nationalities  and  all  grades  and  conditions 
of  labor.  The  skilled  tunnel  workmen  are  men  of  character  and  ability,  usually  young, 
of  good  intelligence  and  sound  of  body,  without  a  streak  of  fear  or  cowardice  in  their 
makeup.  All  of  those  characteristics  are  essential  to  under-water  air-pressure  work. 

As  is  quite  generally  known,  air  pressure  and  tunnel  shields  were  used  in  all  of 
the  under-water  work.  It  might  be  well  to  here  correct  the  misconception  which 
exists  in  the  minds  of  many,  that  the  use  of  air  pressure  for  such  purposes  is  some- 
thing comparatively  new.  This  is  not  the  case.  The  use  of  air  pressure  was  a  very 
early  invention,  and  it  is  a  matter  of  record  that  in  1830,  Admiral  Cochrane,  after- 
wards Lord  Dundonald,  was  granted  letters  patent  for  the  use  of  air  pressure  in  tunnel 
construction.  The  modern  engineer  has  merely  developed  the  art  to  a  high  degree. 

The  method  of  construction  used  in  the  Hudson  River  tunnels  has  been  designated 
the  "shield  method."  In  this  type  of  construction,  the  primary  part  of  the  tunnel 
structure  consists  of  an  iron  shell,  formed  of  segmental  rings,  bolted  together  through 
inside  flanges,  and  forming  a  large  articulated  pipe  or  tube,  circular  in  section. 
This  iron  shell  is  put  in  place  segmentally  by  means  of  a  shield,  an  ingenious  mechanism 
which  both  protects  the  work  under  construction  and  assists  in  the  building  of  the 
iron  shell. 

A  tunneling  shield  consists  essentially  of  a  tube  or  cylinder  slightly  larger  in 
diameter  than  the  tunnel  it  is  intended  to  build,  which  slides  over  the  exterior  of  the 
finished  lining  like  the  tubes  of  a  telescope.  The  front  end  of  this  cylindrical  shield 
is  provided  with  a  diaphragm  or  bulkhead  in  which  are  apertures  which  may  be  opened 

*  Illustrations  by  courtesy  of  Jacobs  &  Davies,  Engineers. 

(492) 


STORY  OF  TUNNELS  UNDER  HUDSON  RIVER      493 


THE  NEW  SHORT  Cur  TC  NEW  YORK 
Hudson  River  Tubes  of  the  Hudson  &  Manhattan  R.  R.  Co. 


A94        STORY  OF  TUNNELS  UNDER  HUDSON  RIVER 

or  closed  at  will.  Behind  this  diaphragm  are  placed  a  number  of  hydraulic  jacks, 
so  arranged  that  by  thrusting  against  the  last  erected  iron  ring  the  entire  shield  is 
pushed  forward.  The  hind  end  of  the  shield  is  simply  a  continuation  of  the  cylinder 
which  forms  the  front  end,  and  this  hind  end,  or  tail,  always  overlaps  the  last  few 
feet  of  the  built-up  iron-shell  tunnel. 

When  the  openings  in  the  bulkhead  are  closed,  the  tunnel  is  protected  from 
the  inrush  of  water  or  soft  ground,  and  the  openings  may  be  so  regulated  that  con- 
trol is  maintained  over  the  material  passed  through.  After  a  ring  of  iron  lining  has 
been  erected  within  the  tail  of  the  shield,  excavation  is  carried  out  ahead.  When 


ONE  OF  THE  SIXTY-SEVEN-TON  TUNNEL  SHIF:LDS 

sufficient  excavation  has  been  taken  out,  the  jacks  are  again  extended,  thus  pushing 
the  shield  ahead,  and  another  ring  of  iron  is  erected  as  before. 

For  the  erection  of  these  heavy  plates,  a  hydraulic  swinging  arm,  called  the 
"Erector,"  is  mounted,  either  on  the  shield  itself  or  on  an  independent  erector  plat- 
form, according  to  conditions.  This  erector  approaches  closely  the  faculties  of 
the  human  arm.  It  is  hydraulically  operated  and  can  be  moved  in  any  desired 
direction.  This  method  of  construction  can  be  followed  in  almost  every  kind  of 
ground  that  can  be  met  with,  and  it  is  especially  valuable  in  dealing  with  soft,  wet 
grounds.  In  passing  through  materials  saturated  with  water,  the  shield  is  assisted 
by  using  compressed  air  in  the  working  chamber. 

The  employment  of  compressed  air  under  such  conditions  is  really  a  rather  simple 
thing  in  itself,  and  means  merely  that  the  pressure  of  air  in  the  chamber  where  men 
are  working  is  maintained  at  a  point  sufficient  to  offset  the  pressure  of  the  hydro- 
static head  of  water  and  thereby  prevent  its  inflow.  A  crude  comparison  may  be 


STORY  OF  TUNNELS  UNDER  HUDSON  RIVER       495 


496      STORY  OF  TUNNELS  UNDER  HUDSON  RIVER 

made  by  saying  that  if  the  ceiling  of  a  room  was  weak  and  threatening  to  fall — if 
we  filled  the  room  with  sufficient  pressure  of  air,  it  would  support  the  ceiling  and 
prevent  it  falling  in.  In  tunnel  work,  air  is  supplied  under  compression  from  the 
mechanical  construction  plant  located  on  the  surface,  and  the  pressure  of  air  main- 
tained in  the  working  chamber  is  determined  by  the  depth  of  the  work  below  tide 
level,  as  the  hydrostatic  head  increases  with  the  depth. 

Control  of  air  pressure  is  never  entrusted  to  any  but  the  most  reliable,  competent 
and  experienced  man,  as  it  is  of  the  utmost  importance  that  air  pressure  be  main- 
tained properly.  The  first  impulse  of  an  inexperienced  man,  should  he  notice  an 


APRON  IN  FRONT  OF  SHIELD,  FIVE  MINUTES  BEFORE  SHOVING 

inrush  of  water,  would  be  to  increase  the  air  pressure,  which  might  be  a  very  dangerous 
thing  to  do.  An  experienced  man,  however,  would  very  likely  first  lower  his  pres- 
sure in  such  an  emergency,  and  then  put  up  with  the  nuisance  and  difficulty  of 
having  a  good  deal  of  water  in  his  working  chamber.  By  doing  this,  he  would  permit 
the  greater  external  pressure  to  squeeze  the  soil  into  the  leaking  pockets  and  thereby 
choke  the  leak. 

To  improperly  or  inopportunely  raise  the  air  pressure  would  be  quite  likely  to 
result  in  the  air  blowing  a  hole  through  the  roof  of  the  tunnel  heading,  allowing  all 
air  pressure  to  escape,  and  permitting  an  uncontrollable  volume  of  water  to  rush  in 
and  flood  the  work. 

The  outer  shell  of  the  tunnel  shield  is  composed  of  two-  or  three-ply  boiler  plates, 
and  the  interior  is  braced  with  a  system  of  steel  girders.  The  shields  used  weighed 
approximately  sixty-seven  tons  each.  Sixteen  or  eighteen  were  used.  To  move 


STORY  OF  TUNNELS  UNDER  HUDSON  RIVER,       497 

the  shield  forward,  each  shield  was  equipped  with  sixteen  hydraulic  jacks,  arranged 
around  the  shield  circumferentially.  These  jacks  were  controlled  by  a  series  of 
valves,  which  were  so  designed  that  any  one  jack  or  any  set  of  jacks  desired  could 
be  operated.  This  was  necessary  as  the  direction  of  the  shield  was,  as  it  were,  guided 
by  the  pressure  of  the  jacks.  When  it  was  desired  to  alter  the  direction  of  the  shield, 
either  upwards  or  downwards,  or  to  the  right  or  left,  the  jacks  on  the  opposite  side 
to  which  the  shield  was  to  point,  were  operated.  The  hydraulic  pressure  operating 
these  jacks  was  5,000  pounds  per  square  inch,  and  the  total  energy,  when  all  jacks 


CUTTING  EDGE  OF  SHIELD  IN  NORTH  TUNNEL 

were  employed  at  the  same  time,  was  equivalent  to  2,500  tons,  which  was  equal  to 
eleven  tons  per  square  foot  of  heading. 

Air  pressure  used  to  prevent  the  inflow  of  water  and  soft  dirt  varied  from  nothing 
up  to  forty-two  pounds,  although  a  fair  average  throughout  was  thirty-two  pounds. 
It  varied,  of  course,  according  to  the  condition  encountered. 

The  working  chamber  is  the  space  between  the  tunnel  heading  where  work  is 
in  progress  and  the  air-lock.  The  air-lock  is  a  device  used  for  the  purpose  of  enabling 
workmen  and  materials  to  pass  from  the  portion  of  the  tunnel  where  the  atmospheric 
pressure  is  normal  into  the  portion  where  the  air  pressure  is  greater  than  normal; 
that  is,  the  working  chamber.  The  air-lock  is  a  cylinder,  usually  about  six  feet  in 
diameter  and  twenty  feet  in  length,  with  a  heavily  constructed  iron  door  at  each 
end.  This  lock  is  placed  horizontally  in  the  tunnel  at  such  a  level  as  the  conditions 
of  the  work  necessitate,  but  usually  near  the  bottom,  and  around  this  cylinder,  and 
completely  filling  the  cross-section  of  the  tunnel,  a  concrete  bulkhead  is  built  arid 
is  known  as  the  lock  bulkhead.  The  two  doors  open  in  the  same  direction;  the  one 
at  the  normal  pressure  end  opening  into  the  cylinder,  and  the  one  at  the  heading  end 

32 


498      STORY  OF  TUNNELS  UNDER  HUDSON  RIVER 

opening  away  from  the  cylinder.     One  door  is  always  closed,  and  both  doors  are 
closed  during  the  operation  of  entering  or  leaving  the  air-pressure  section. 

Going  into  the  air  pressure,  the  door  at  the  heading  end  is  held  closed  by  the 
pressure  of  air  against  it  while  one  is  entering  the  lock,  after  which  the  outer  door 
is  also  closed.  A  valve  is  then  opened  which  permits  the  air  to  flow  from  the  working 
chamber  into  the  lock,  until  the  lock  becomes  filled  with  air  of  the  same  pressure 
as  exists  in  the  heading.  As  soon  as  the  pressure  is  thus  equalized,  the  door  at  the 
neading  end  can  be  opened  and  the  workmen  pass  into  the  heading.  Going  out, 
the  operations  are  simply  reversed.  After  the  heading  door  is  closed,  with  the 
workmen  in  the  air-lock,  a  valve  is  opened  which  permits  the  air  in  the  lock  to 


SHIELD  CUTTING  EDGE  BREAKING  THROUGH  WALL  AT  SIXTH  AVENUE  AND  TWELFTH 
STREET,  LOOKING  SOUTH,  OCTOBER  23,  1907 

exhaust  into  the  normal  air,  until  the  pressure  within  the  lock  reduces  to  the  same 
as  that  outside,  when  the  outer  door  can  be  opened  and  persons  inside  the  lock  pass 
out.  Both  operations  must  be  gradual,  as  a  sudden  change  from  normal  to  high 
pressure,  or  vice  versa,  would  be  very  dangerous  to  anyone. 

In  tunneling  under  the  river,  nearly  every  conceivable  combination  of  rocks 
and  soils  were  met,  but  for  the  most  part  the  material  was  silt.  In  such  material, 
with  a  pressure  of  5,000  pounds  per  square  inch  on  the  shield  jacks,  the  shield  was 
pushed  through  the  ground  as  though  one  pushed  a  stick  into  a  heap  of  snow,  pushing 
aside  the  silt,  and  thus  obviating  the  necessity  of  removing  any  excavated  material. 
Sand  or  gravel,  or  any  material  which  would  not  flow  or  become  displaced  by  the 
shield,  of  course,  had  to  be  excavated  ahead  of  the  shield,  and  removed  from  the 
heading  prior  to  pushing  it  forward.  In  the  silt  the  most  satisfactory  and  economic 
progress  was  attained,  and  a  record  was  made  of  seventy-two  feet  of  finished  tunnel, 
completely  lined  with  iron,  in  one  day  of  twenty-four  hours. 

The  most  difficult  combination  that  had  to  be  dealt  with  under  the  river  was 
when  the  bottom  consisted  of  rock  and  the  top  of  silt  and  w^t  sand.  In  such  cases, 
and  there  were  many  of  them,  the  upper  section  of  soft  ground  was  first  excavated 


STORY  OF  TUNNELS  UNDER  HUDSON  RIVER       499 

and  the  exposed  face  securely  supported  with  timbers  ahead  of  the  shield,  and  the 
rock  underlying  then  drilled  and  blasted.  This  was  very  tedious  and  expensive 
work.  Exceedingly  small  charges  of  dynamite  had  to  be  used  and  the  procedure 
conducted  with  the  utmost  caution. 

In  the  course  of  their  progress,  the  shields  were  subjected  to  the  most  intense 
strains  and  hard  usage,  as  may  well  be  imagined.  One  of  the  shields  is  illustrated. 
It  was  used  to  construct  the  south  tunnel  of  the  up-town  pair  of  tubes,  and  passed 
from  under  the  Hudson  River,  through  Morton,  Greenwich  and  Christopher  Streets, 
into  Sixth  Avenue,  and  north  to  Twelfth  Street,  a  total  distance  of  4;525  feet,  of  which 


NOETH  TUNNEL,  SHOWING  COMMENCEMENT  OF  NEW  WORK 

2,075  feet  was  through  rock  overlaid  with  wet  sand.  During  the  progress  of  this 
shield,  26,000  sticks  of  dynamite  were  exploded  in  front  of  the  cutting  edge,  causing 
great  damage  to  the  structure  of  the  shield,  so  that  when  it  arrived  at  its  destination 
at  Sixth  Avenue  and  Twelfth  Street,  it  was  in  such  a  condition  of  distortion  that 
it  was  with  difficulty  that  the  tunnel  lining  could  be  erected  behind  it. 

In  pushing  a  shield  forward  with  the  battery  of  powerful  hydraulic  jacks,  each 
advance  is  of  two  feet,  and  must  be  followed  immediately  by  installation  of  the 
permanent  lining  in  the  rear.  In  the  early  days,  brick  work  was  used  for  lining,  and 
in  recent  years  it  has  also  been  used  to  some  extent,  but  even  with  the  use  of  quick- 
setting  Portland  cement,  neither  brick  work  nor  concrete  has  proved  successful 
for  subaqueous  work,  as  the  cement  cannot  reach  the  required  strength  within  the 
time  it  is  feasible  to  leave  the  shield  standing  before  advancing  it  again. 

During  the  early  work  on  the  north  tube  of  the  uptown  tunnels,  a  point  was 
reached  where  the  rock  was  sixteen  feet  above  the  bottom  of  the  tunnel,  and  the 
overlying  silt  was  in  a  semi-fluid  state.  Five  barges  of  clay  had  been  dumped  in 


500       STORY  OF  TUNNELS  UNDER' HUDSON  RIVER 


STORY  OF  TUNNELS  UNDER  HUDSON  RIVER       501 

over  this  point  to  make  a  roof  for  the  tunnel,  but  the  fluid  clay  could  not  be 
cJntroned  and  crept  through  the  doors  of  the  shield.  After  trying  a  1  known  methods 
tTset  through,  it  was  decided  to  bake  this  wet  clay  by  means  of  intense  heat.  Two 
Inrlp  barses  of  kerosene  were  sent  into  the  tunnel,  and  an  air  pipe  connected  to  them 
Mne  blow-pipes  were  also  attached,  and  the  fire  from  the  blow-pipes  was  impinged 
on  the  exposed  clay  until  it  became  caked  sufficiently  dry  and  hard  to  overcome 
sHppbL  It  required  eight  hours  of  this  baking  to  dry  the  clay  hard  and,  during 
thfs  period  water  had  to  be  played  continuously  on  the  shield  to  avoid  damage  due 
to  the  high  temperature.  It  is  believed  that  this  was  the  first  tune  that  soft  material 


NEW  YORK  AND  NEW  JERSEY  TUNNEL  SHOWING  SIGNAL  AND  CAR 

met  with  in  tunneling  under  a  river  has  been  solidified  by  means  of  fire.  Seven 
days  after  passing  this  troublesome  point,  the  rock  suddenly  disappeared  and  the 
work  proceeded  without  further  trouble. 

Another  unusual  situation  occurred  in  the  south  tunnel  of  the  uptown  tubes 
When  the  shield  had  advanced  115  feet  from  the  Jersey  side,  the  night  superintendent 
in  charge  of  the  tunnel  work,  in  his  anxiety  to  push  the  work,  disobeyed  instruc- 
tions and  the  tunnel  got  away  from  him  and  was  flooded,  and  his  men  had  a  narrow 
escape  with  their  lives.  In  order  to  regain  the  tunnel  several  schemes  were  con- 
sidered, including  that  of  sending  a  dredge  through  to  dredge  out  the  bed  of  thenvei 
just  in  advance  of  the  shield,  a  sufficient  depth  to  enable  a  diver  to  go  down  and  timber 
up  the  exterior  opening  of  the  doorway,  where  the  silt  and  mud  had  come  through 
and  filled  the  tunnel.  This  plan  had  to  be  abandoned,  as  the  river  above  was  almost 
entirelv  occupied  by  shipping  that  could  not  be  interrupted. 

Finally  the  difficult  situation  was  met  by  obtaining  two  large  and  heavy  main- 
sails, which  made  a  double  canvas  cover  measuring  about  sixty  by  forty  feet,     Inis 


502      STORY  OF  TUNNELS  UNDER  HUDSON  RIVER 


HUDSON  &  MANHATTAN  R.  R. 


AN  X-RAY  VIEW  or  A  BUSY  HALF-MILE  UNDER  THE  GROUND  ON  THE  JERSEY  SIDE  OF  THE 

HUDSON  KIVEK 


STORY  OF  TUNNELS  UNDER  HUDSON  RIVER      503 


Hs 


504       STORY  OF  TUNNELS  UNDER  HUDSON  RIVER 

canvas  cover  was  then  spread  on  a  flat  barge,  small  sections  of  pig  iron  being  attached 
around  the  edges  of  it.  Ropes  were  carried  to  fixed  points  to  hold  it  in  exact  position. 
The  barge  was  then  withdrawn,  and  the  canvas  cover  cropped  to  the  bed  of  the 
Tiver,  and,  most  fortunately,  it  settled  over  the  point  where  the  leak  had  occurred, 
and  a  large  number  of  bags  of  dirt  were  then  deposited  on  it.  An  opening  was  then 
made  in  the  bulkhead  of  the  tunnel  below,  and  for  eight  days  material,  under  hydro- 
static pressure,  forced  its  way  into  the  tunnel,  where  it  was  loaded  on  cars,  and 
finally  the  canvas  was  drawn  into  the  hole,  stopping  it  up.  Additional  material 
was  then  deposited  into  the  river  to  fill  the  cavity,  and  finally  the  tunnel  was  recovered, 
pumped  out  and  work  resumed.  This  event  is  of  somewhat  historical  interest,  in 
that  the  two  mainsails  which  were  used  were  procured  from  the  owner  of  the  famous 
American  cup  defender,  the  well-remembered  "  Reliance." 

Probably  the  most  unique  and  interesting  pieces  of  construction  are  the  three 
junctions  on  the  Jersey  side  of  the  river,  where  the  uptown  tunnels  from  New  York 
diverge,  north  to  Hoboken  and  south  to  Jersey  City  and  New  York  downtown.  For 
safe  and  expeditious  operation  of  trains,  where  the  schedule  is  only  one  and  one- 
half  minutes,  it  was  imperative  that  grade  crossings  should  be  avoided.  By  grade 
crossings  is  meant  the  tracks  of  one  service  crossing  the  tracks  of  another  service 
at  the  same  grade.  At  the  point  in  question,  this  was  a  knotty  problem  to  solve, 
owing  to  the  unusual  operating  conditions  which  had  to  be  met,  there  being  six 
separate  and  distinct  operating  classes  of  trains  to  be  handled  around  this  triangle. 

To  meet  this  situation,  three  massive  reinforced  concrete  caissons  were  built 
on  the  surface.  They  are  practically  large  two-story  houses,  each  being  over  one 
hundred  feet  in  length,  about  fifty  feet  in  height,  and  about  forty-five  feet  in  width 
at  their  widest  point.  The  bottom  edges  were  sharp,  and,  with  the  use  of  air  pres- 
sure and  great  weights,  the  three  structures  were  sunk  in  the  ground  to  the  same 
grade  as  the  intercepting  tunnels,  and  the  tunnels  were  then  driven  into  them. 

Particular  attention  should  be  given  to  the  Jersey  City  to  Hoboken  tube,  in 
the  lower  part  of  the  caisson  in  the  foreground,  in  the  accompanying  illustration, 
which  curls  around  the  Hoboken  to  Jersey  City  tube,  and  rises  to  the  elevation  of, 
and  connects  into,  the  New  York  to  Hoboken  tube,  at  the  caisson  in  the  background, 
at  the  left  of  the  illustration.  Very  few  of  the  people  who  travel  through  the  tube 
are  probably  aware  of  such  manipulation.  At  the  same  time,  the  arrangement 
absolutely  avoids  any  grade  crossing  whatever,  and  without  such  an  arrangement 
of  tracks  the  road  could  not  be  operated  with  trains  run  so  closely  together  as  under 
the  prevailing  system. 

In  constructing  the  river  tunnels  the  work  was  carried  on  simultaneously  from 
opposite  sides  of  the  river,  the  tunnels  meeting  under  the  river,  and  it  is  interesting, 
if  not  remarkable,  when  one  considers  the  difficulties  under  which  the  engineering 
work  had  to  be  carried  on,  to  note  that  the  tunnels  met  with  practically  absolute 
accuracy. 

What  Causes  Floating  Islands? 

A  floating  island  consists  generally  of  a  mass  of  earth  held  together  by  inter- 
lacing roots. 

They  occur  on  the  Mississippi  and  other  rivers,  being  portions  of  the  banks 
detached  by  the  force  of  the  current  and  carried  down  the  stream,  often  bearing 
trees.  Sometimes  such  islands  are  large  enough  to  serve  as  pasture  grounds. 

Artificial  floating  islands  have  been  formed  by  placing  lake  mud  on  rafts  of 
wicker-work  covered  with  reeds.  They  were  formerly  used  in  the  waters  around 
Mexico,  and  may  be  seen  in  Persia,  India,  and  on  the  borders  of  Tibet.  On  these 
the  natives  raise  melons,  cucumbers  and  other  vegetables  which  need  much  water. 


VIEWS  OF  AIRSHIPS 


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VIEWS  OP  AIRSHIPS 


VIEWS  OF  AIR  SHIPS 


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VIEWS  OF  AIRSHIPS 


ZEPPELIN  DEVICE  FOB  DROPPING  BOMBS 

An  armored  car  is  suspended  by  three  cables  from  the  Zeppelin  airship  to 
a  distance  of  several  thousand  feet  below  the  monster  aircraft,  which  is  con- 
cealed in  the  clouds  above.  (Sphere  copr.) 


VIEWS  OF  AIRSHIPS 


515 


A  BELGIAN  MILITARY  OBSERVATION  BALLOON 

The  car  of  this  balloon  is  equipped  with  wireless,  which  is  used  to  send  word  of  the 
gun  positions  of  the  enemy,  movements  of  troops,  ranges  for  the  gunners  and  much 
other  valuable  information.  A  cable  holds  the  balloon  captive. 


516 


VIEWS  OF  AIRSHIPS 


VIEWS  OF  AIRSHIPS 


517 


The  Story  of  an  Automobile  Factory* 

In  visiting  the  factory  where  a  half  million  automobiles  are  made  each  year,  the 
visitor  first  comes  to  the  power  house. 

In  the  construction  of  this  building  5,200  tons  of  structural  steel  were  used,  the 
equivalent  necessary  to  build  a  modern  twenty-story  sky-scraper. 

Six  engines  of  a  combination  gas-steam  type,  housed  in  this  building,  develop 
36,000  combined  horse-power.  They  are  said  to  be  the  first  gas-steam  engines  to  be 


CRANK  SHAFT  GRINDING  DEPARTMENT 

put  to  practical  use.  Another  engine,  using  steam  only,  develops  2,000  horse-power, 
while  several  pumping  engines  increase  the  total  horse-power  of  the  plant  to  45,000, 
probably  the  largest  individual  unit  of  any  power-plant  in  the  world,  and  said  to  be  the 
only  one  of  its  kind  in  actual  operation. 

Some  idea  of  the  size  of  the  engines  is  gained  from  the  fact  that  the  stroke  is  72 
inches,  while  the  gas  cylinders  are  42  inches  in  diameter  and  the  steam  cylinders  are 
36  and  68  inches  in  diameter. 


*  Illustrations  by  courtesy  of  Ford  Motor  Co. 


(518) 


THE  STORY  OF  AN  AUTOMOBILE  FACTORY       519 


520 


THE  STORY  OF  AN  AUTOMOBILE  FACTORY 


In  producing  the  gas  and  steam  for  these  engines  only  twenty-two  tons  of  coal  per 
hour  are  consumed,  which  speaks  well  for  the  efficiency  of  the  engines.  In  addition  to 
the  steam,  the  daily  consumption  of  producer  gas  for  power  purpose  only  is  28,512,000 
cubic  feet.  Added  to  this  figure  for  power  gas,  is  another  item  of  gas  used  in  the  factory 
for  various  purposes,  which  averages  nearly  1,000,000  cubic  feet  per  day,  bringing  the 
per  diem  consumption  of  gas  by  the  company  up  to  29,512,000  cubic  feet. 

The  main  factory  buildings  are  900  feet  long  and  800  feet  wide,  four  stories  in 
height  and  of  fire-proof  construction.  They  are  so  designed  that  every  part  of  the 
interior  receives  a  full  share  of  daylight. 

The  heating  and  ventilating  of  the  factory  building  is  accomplished  in  a  modern, 
scientific  manner.  In  the  winter,  warm  washed  air  is  forced  through  long  ducts  in  the 


OVERHEAD  MONORAIL  SYSTEM 

floor  up  into,  the  room.  In  the  summer,  cool  washed  air  is  handled  in  the  same  way, 
thus  providing  a  clean,  healthful  atmosphere  the  year  around.  By  this  system  the  air 
in  the  factory  is  completely  changed  five  times  per  hour. 

At  the  right  as  the  visitor  enters  the  factory,  is  seen  the  tool  construction  depart- 
ment. Here  are  employed  approximately  1,000  expert  tool  makers,  machinists  and 
die  sinkers.  These  men  are  engaged  in  making  new  machinery  (designed  in  the  com- 
pany shops),  tools,  jigs,  fixtures  and  other  machine  shop  accessories,  and  repairing 
those  in  use. 

Overhead  are  traveling  cranes  which  have  a  capacity  of  forty  tons  each.  These 
cranes  facilitate  the  work  of  the  tool  construction  department  by  carrying  cumber- 
some parts  of  machinery  to  and  from  it  for  alterations  and  repairs. 

Here  the  visitor  is  standing  upon  the  roof  of  a  great  tunnel,  in  which  are  all  the 
heating,  water  and  steam  pipes,  and  the  power  cables  running  from  the  power  house  to 


THE  STORY  OF  AN  AUTOMOBILE  FACTORY        521 

various  parts  of  the  shop.  This  tunnel  is  large  enough  to  permit  the  easy  passage  of 
a  touring  car. 

Standing  in  front  of  the  factory  office,  the  visitor  is  doubly  impressed  with  the 
magnitude  of  the  view  before  him.  In  one  continuous  room,  containing  approximately 
700,000  square  feet  of  floor  space,  there  are,  in  round  numbers,  8,000  machines  in 
actual  operation,  representing  an  outlay  of  about  $5,000,000.  These  machines  use 
some  2,500  gallons  of  lubricating  oils  and  11,000  gallons  of  cutting  fluids  each  day.  For 
driving  the  many  machines,  about  fifty  miles  of  leather  belting  are  used,  giving  the 
room  the  appearance  of  a  dense  forest. 

The  visitor  who  is  familiar  with  machine  shop  practice  will  notice  at  once  the 
peculiar  location  and  setting  of  machinery  in  this  shop.  The  machines  of  a  class,  or 


A  CORNER  OF  THE  MAIN  HOSPITAL 

type,  are  not  all  located  in  a  single  group  or  unit.  Each  department  contains  all  of 
the  necessary  machinery  to  complete  every  operation  on  each  part  or  piece  it  produces. 
To  illustrate,  a  rough  forging  or  casting  is  started  in  a  department  at  one  point,  and  after 
passing  through  the  machines  doing  the  required  operations,  it  leaves  this  department, 
in  a  finished  condition,  ready  to  be  assembled  into  the  car. 

Such  a  system  necessitates  the  grouping  together  of  many  different  kinds  of 
machines,  as  well  as  including  brazing  furnaces,  cyanide  furnaces  and  other  special 
units  (most  generally  found  in  separate  buildings).  Chutes  run  from  one  machine  to 
another,  so  that  a  workman  can  transport  a  part  from  his  operation  to  the  next  one  by 
gravity,  The  results  of  this  transportation  system  are  remarkable,  making  a  big  sav- 
ing in  trucking  expense,  loss  of  material  and  the  absence  of  usual  delays. 

As  the  visitor  passes  down  through  the  machine  shop,  he  particularly  notices  the 
sanitary  conditions  of  the  plant.  There  is  a  department,  enrolling  about  500  men, 


522       THE  STORY  OF  AN  AUTOMOBILE  FACTORY 


THE  STORY  OF  AN  AUTOMOBILE  FACTORY        523 


whose  duties  are  to  keep  the  floors  swept  clean,  the  windows  washed,  in  fact  to  keep  the 
sanitary  conditions  surrounding  the  workmen  as  nearly  perfect  as  possible.  The  floors 
of  the  entire  plant  are  scrubbed  at  least  once  a  week,  with  hot  water  and  a  strong  solu- 
tion of  alkali,  which  removes  the  grease.  Another  department  of  about  twenty-five 
men  does  nothing  but  paint  the  walls  and  ceilings  of  the  factory,  keeping  everything 
fresh  and  clean. 

To  facilitate  the  inter-departmental  transportation  of  materials  in  the  factory, 
there  is  an  overhead  monorail  system,  comprising  over  1^/2  miles  of  I-beam  track. 
On  this  system  are  nine  monorail  cars,  each  car  having  two  2-ton  hoists,  by  means  of 
which  great  boxes  and  trays  of  material  can  be  picked  up  and  carried  overhead  from 
point  to  point  in  the  shop. 

Near  the  pay  office  is  the  main  first-aid  department.  Here  the  chief  surgeon 
has  on  his  staff  eight  regular  doctors  and  several  first-aid  nurses.  The  surgical  equip- 
ment, which  includes  an 
X-ray  machine,  pulmotor, 
operating  table  and  electrical 
appliances,  as  well  as  im- 
proved surgical  instruments, 
enables  the  surgeon  to  cope 
with  any  accident. 

The  factory  service  office 
houses  a  department  which 
is  responsible  for  the  well- 
being  of  factory  employees. 
Of  the  200  men  in  the  division 
the  majority  are  employed 
in  the  capacities  of  watch- 
men, to  take  care  of  the  many 
entrances  and  exits  of  the 
plant  and  also  to  inspect  the 
fire  -  fighting  equipment 
which  is  distributed  over  the 
entire  plant. 

This  fire-fighting  equipment  is  being  continually  added  to  as  the  plant  expands 
and  now  embraces  more  than  a  mile  and  a  half  of  large  hose,  10,000  feet  of  smaller 
hose,  and  2,900  feet  of  hose  attached  to  chemical  tanks.  There  are  1,421  three-gallon 
chemical  extinguishers  and  fifty-eight  40-gallon  chemical  tanks,  mounted  on  wheels. 
Surrounding  the  plant  are  twenty-seven  water  hydrants  equipped  to  handle  two  and 
three  lines  of  hose,  while  inside  the  plant  are  eight  hose-houses  fully  equipped.  Pyrenes 
to  the  number  of  175  are  distributed  about  the  departments  for  combatting  electrical 
fires. 

A  new  alarm  system,  said  to  be  the  most  modern  in  the  country,  is  being  installed 
throughout  the  factory.  Back  of  all  other  preparation  is  the  sprinkler  system,  com- 
posed of  water  pipes  hung  next  to  the  ceiling  in  all  buildings  and  so  designed  that  there 
is  a  sprinkler  head  every  ten  feet.  Should  the  temperature  in  a  room,  for  any  reason, 
reach  160  degrees,  the  sprinkler  heads  in  the  immediate  vicinity  will  open  automat- 
ically, spraying  out  water  which  is  piped  from  two  tanks  having  a  combined  capacity 
of  600,000  gallons. 

In  addition  to  its  other  duties  the  factory  service  department  has  charge  of  the 
lost  and  found  articles.  Since  this  work  was  included,  almost  every  sort  of  personal 
property,  from  key-rings  to  motor-cycles  has  been  found  and  restored  to  the  rightful 
owners. 

Proceeding  from  the  factory  service  office,  the  visitor  finds  himself  in  the  main 


REAR  AXLE  ASSEMBLY 


524        THE  STORY   OF  AN  AUTOMOBILE  FACTORY 

crane-way,  devoted  exclusively  to  the  storage  of  parts  in  the  rough,  or  semi-finished 
condition.  This  crane-way  contains  over  67,000  square  feet  of  floor  space.  Overhead 
are  two  5-ton  electric  cranes,  so  arranged  that  they  can  unload  material  from  railway 
cars  at  one  end  of  the  crane-way  and  deposit  it  in  a  position  to  be  picked  up  by  the 
monorail  cars,  or  placed  in  bins  or  barrels  for  storage.  An  interesting  item  in  regard 
to  these  cranes  is  that  the  load  can  be  moved  in  three  directions  at  one  time,  this  being 
accomplished  by  means  of  the  small  car  hoist.  While  the  crane  proper  is  moving 


CYLINDER  MACHINING  DEPARTMENT 

through  the  crane-way,  this  car  travels  across  the  crane,  and  at  the  same  time  raises 
or  lowers  whatever  may  be  suspended  from  it. 

Passing  by  the  crane-way  one  comes  to  the  rear  axle  unit  assembly.  The  manu- 
facturing policy  of  the  company  is  to  make  unit  assemblies  in  different  departments 
and  deliver  them  to  the  final  assembly. 

In  the  unit  assembly  departments  are  received  the  finished  parts  from  the  machine 
shop.  These  parts  are  assembled  on  progressive  traveling  tracks.  By  this  system 
each  assembler,  or  operator,  performs  one  operation  only,  and  repeats  this  operation 
on  every  unit  passing  through  the  department.  As  a  result,  every  operator  soon 
becomes  a  specialist,  and  specialization  is  the  fundamental  principle  of  the  entire 
organization. 

The  economic  results  from  this  system  have  been  wonderful,  as  will  be  shown  in 
some  of  the  departments  yet  to  be  described.  It  saves  floor  space,  and  eliminates  con- 


THE  STORY  OF  AN  AtJTOMOBILE  FACTORY        525 

gestion  due  to  trucking,  as  large  quantities  of  material  are  piled  along  each  side  of  the 
conveyor,  and  the  unit  in  process  of  assembling  is  moved  to  the  stock,  rather  than  each 
individual  piece  of  the  assembly  being  distributed  at  different  places. 

After  the  rear  axle  has  been  completely  assembled,  it  is  immersed  in  a  tank  con- 
taining enamel,  and  is  hung  on  a  special  trolley  which  runs  by  gravity  along  an  I-beam 
track.  This  trolley  carries  the  axle  to  an  elevator,  which  lifts  it  to  a  conveyor  baking 
oven,  located  in  a  section  of  the  roof.  The  axles  are  continually  moving  through  this 
oven,  and  at  the  expiration  of  about  forty-five  minutes  emerge  from  the  far  end  com- 


MOTOR  ASSEMBLY 

pletely  baked.  They  are  automatically  dropped  onto  another  elevator  which  lowers 
them  to  the  point  near  where  they  are  used  in  the  final  assembly.  All  material  and 
unit  assemblies  move  in  one  direction — that  is,  toward  the  final  assembly. 

Beyond  the  rear  axle  section  is  the  department  that  makes  the  magnets  for  the 
magneto,  and  also  that  in  which  the  transmission  is  assembled  on  a  conveyor  track, 
ending  in  an  automatic  elevator  which  transports  the  completed  transmission  to  the 
motor  assembly  line. 

In  the  rear  of  the  transmission  department  is  the  motor  assembly.  This  assem- 
bly begins  at  the  point  where  the  cylinder  machine  shop  ends,  so  that  the  movement 
of  the  cylinder  from  the  time  it  arrives  in  the  machine  shop  until  it  goes  into  the 
finished  motor,  is  continuous.  In  the  machining  of  the  cylinder  castings,  and  the 
operation  of  assembling  the  motor,  close  inspection  of  the  work  is  noticeable.  By  the 
use  of  the  assembling  line,  better  inspection  is  possible,  than  where  one  or  two  men 


526        THE  STORY  OF  AN  AUTOMOBILE  FACTORY 


assemble  the  entire  motor.  In  addition  to  the  inspection  in  the  assembly,  there  are 
three  points  of  trial,  or  working  or  testing,  which  show  up  any  defects  in  the  motor. 

The  final  operation  in  the  motor  assembly  line  is  the  block  test,  where  the  motor 
is  inspected  and  tested  before  being  assembled  into  the  chassis.  On  the  block  test,  the 
motor  is  driven  by  an  electric  motor  for  the  final  O.  K.  and  tryout  before  being  installed 
in  this  chassis. 

At  the  end  of  this  testing  period,  if  no  defect  has  developed,  the  motor  is  approved, 
placed  upon  a  special  truck  and  wheeled  to  the  final  assembling  line. 

The  motor  department  just  described  furnishes  an  interesting  illustration  of  the 
economy  of  the  moving  assembling  system.  Before  the  present  system  was  installed 
about  1,1 00  employees  were  required  in  this  department,  working  a  nine-hour  day  to 
build  1,000  motors.  Today,  as  a  direct  result  of  the  new  methods  of  assembling,  and 

the  efficiency  gained  through 

the  profit-sharing  with  em- 
ployees, about  1,000  men  are 
assembling  more  than  2,000 
motors  in  an  eight-hour  day. 
The  assembling  of  the 
front  axle,  dash  and  radiator 
are  fully  as  interesting  as  the 
unit  just  described,  but  space 
will  not  permit  a  detailed 
explanation  of  them. 

Perhaps  the  -most  inter- 
esting department  in  the 
whole  factory,  to  the  visitor, 
is  the  final  assembly.  In 
this  division,  all  the  assem- 
bled units  meet  the  assembly 
conveyor  at  the  point  where 
they  are  needed.  At  the 
start  of  the  track  a  front  axle 

unit,  a  rear  axle  unit  and  a  frame  unit  are  assembled.  This  assembly  is  then  started 
in  motion  by  means  of  a  chain  conveyor,  and  as  it  moves  down  the  room  at  a  constant 
speed  of  eight  feet  per  minute,  each  man  adds  one  part  to  the  growing  chassis  or  does 
one  operation,  which  is  assigned  to  him,  so  that  when  the  chassis  reaches  the  end  of 
the  line,  it  is  ready  to  run  on  its  own  power. 

In  following  the  final  assembly  line  from  the  point  where  the  chain  conveyor 
engages  the  frame  and  axles,  the  visitor  is  impressed  with  the  dispatch  with  which 
every  movement  is  executed.  The  gasoline  tank,  for  example,  comes  down  from  the 
fourth  floor  on  a  conveyor  outside  of  the  building,  and  drops  through  a  chute  onto  a 
bridge  over  the  assembly  line.  On  this  bridge  is  located  a  gasoline  pump,  from  which 
each  tank  receives  one  gallon  of  gasoline  before  it  is  installed  in  the  car. 

After  the  gasoline  tank  is  assembled,  a  number  of  small  units  are  added,  such  as 
the  hand  brake  control  lever,  gasoline  feed  pipe,  and  fender  irons,  until  the  point  is 
reached  at  which  the  motor  is  placed  in  the  frame. 

Ordinarily  the  setting  of  a  motor  in  the  frame  is  a  long  operation,  but  in  this 
assembly  the  motor  is  elevated  by  a  hoist,  and  lowered  into  place  while  the  chassis  is 
moving  along  the  conveyor  track.  From  this  point,  other  small  parts  are  added,  and 
bolts  tightened,  until  the  growing  chassis  reaches  the  bridge  on  which  the  dash  unit  is 
deposited  by  a  chute  from  the  second  floor,  where  it  is  assembled.  The  dash  unit 
includes  the  dash,  complete  steering  gear,  coil,  horn,  and  all  wiring  ready  to  be  attached 
to  the  motor,  so  that  its  installation  is  rapid. 


TRANSMISSION  COVER  DEPARTMENT 


THE  STORY  OF  AN  AUTOMOBILE  FACTORY        527 


Further  along,  such  parts  as  the  exhaust  pipe,  muffler,  and  side  pans  for  the 
motor  are  quickly  fastened  in  place,  and  the  wheels  are  brought  into  the  assembly. 

There  will  be  noticed  the  vertical  chutes,  extending  through  the  ceiling.  Down 
through  these,  from  the  third  floor,  come  the  wheels,  with  the  tires  mounted  and 
inflated  to  the  proper  pressure.  From  this  point  the  chassis  moves  under  the  bridge 
upon  which  are  stored  the  radiators,  which  have  been  delivered  by  a  belt  conveyor. 

At  the  end  of  the  assembly  line,  the  rear  wheels  on  the  finished  chassis  drop  into 
a  set  of  revolving  grooved  wheels,  sunk  into  the  concrete  floor,  and  driven  by  an  over- 


INSPECTION  OF  FRONT  AXLE  AFTER  MACHINING 

head  motor.  Two  ends  are  accomplished  by  this  operation.  First,  when  the  wheels 
of  the  car  revolve  with  the  grooved  wheels,  this  motion  is  transmitted  to  the  differential, 
through  the  drive  shaft  to  the  motor,  limbering  up  all  these  parts.  The  second  is 
that  while  the  parts  are  being  limbered  up,  the  switch  is  turned  on  and  the  motor 
started. 

At  the  end  of  the  line  the  complete  chassis  is  driven  out  into  the  yard  under  its 
own  power.  Guided  by  practiced  hands  it  moves  swiftly  out  into  the  yard,  turns 
sharply  and  enters  the  final  inspection  line.  A  corps  of  inspectors  at  this  point  takes 
charge  of  the  chassis,  and  the  responsibility  for  each  part  is  assigned  to  some  one  man. 

From  the  final  testing  line  the  chassis  is  driven  to  the  body  chutes,  which  extend 
into  the  factory  yard  from  the  third  floor  of  the  new  six-story  building,  and  are  so  con- 
structed that  the  chassis  may  be  driven  under  them.  The  bodies  are  let  down  the 


528        THE  STORY  OF  AN  AUTOMOBILE  FACTORY 

chutes  on  belt  conveyors,  picked  up  by  small  derricks  and  swung  over  onto  the  chassis. 
The  bodies  are  at  this  time  placed  on  the  chassis  merely  as  a  means  of  a  rapid 
transportation  to  the  freight  cars,  for  in  ordinary  transportation  the  bodies  are  packed 
in  the  cars  separate  from  the  chassis. 

In  the  rear  of  the  main  plant  are  two  six-story  buildings  each  60  feet  wide  by  845 
feet  long,  built  parallel  to  each  other  and  connected  by  a  crane-way  40  feet  wide  the 
full  length  and  height  of  the  buildings. 

The  boiler  house,  which  furnishes  the  steam  for  heating  the  entire  plant,  is  located 
in  the  rear  of  these  buildings.  The  method  of  heating  is  worthy  of  particular  interest, 


INSTALLING  MOTOR  ON  FINAL  ASSEMBLY  LINE 

as  the  air  is  forced  over  coils  of  steam  pipes  located  in  pent  houses  on  the  roofs,  and 
from  this  point  is  driven  down  into  the  various  rooms  through  the  hollow  columns 
which  support  the  floors.  In  the  summer,  cool  washed  air  is  forced  down  through 
these  same  columns,  maintaining  a  normal,  even  temperature,  compatible  with  the 
state  of  the  weather. 

Various  unit  assemblies,  small  machine  departments,  and  store  rooms  are  located 
here  in  addition  to  all  the  body  work. 

Practically  the  entire  first  floors  are  used  as  a  receiving  department,  where  all  the 
material  consigned  to  the  company  is  checked  and  inspected.  Railway  tracks  run  the 
full  length  of  both  crane-ways,  facilitating  the  unloading  and  loading  of  supplies  and 
parts. 

The  body  department  occupies  the  greatest  amount  of  space,  requiring,  witfc  the 


THE  STORY  OF  AN  AUTOMOBILE  FACTORY        529 


upholstering  department,  most  of  the  three  upper  floors.  In  addition  to  this  work  the 
construction  of  tops,  curtains  and  radiators  is  carried  on,  and  a  large  space  is  used  for 
the  storage  of  equipment  and  parts,  such  as  lamps,  horns,  tires,  etc.  A  part  of  the 
second  floor  is  devoted  to  the  storage  and  the  shipping  of  parts  to  branches  and  agents. 
Having  seen  the  body  placed  upon  the  chassis,  the  visitor  passes  along  toward  the 
north.  In  succession  are  the  chutes  on  which  the  crates  of  fenders  are  sent  down  from 
the  fourth  floor  of  the  main  factory  building  to  the  shipping  platform.  Here  is  also  a 
chain  elevator,  which  raises  the  wheels  out  of  the  freight  cars  to  a  runaway  on  which 


MECHANICAL  STARTER — END  OF  FINAL  ASSEMBLY 

they  travel  by  gravity  to  the  third  floor  of  the  main  factory.  With  this  device  it  is 
possible  for  three  or  four  men  to  unload  about  6,000  wheels  each  day. 

One  passes  the  loading  docks,  where  crews  of  six  to  eight  men  each,  working  as  a 
unit,  remove  the  bodies  and  wheels  from  tho  chassis,  and  load  them  into  freight  cars. 
So  proficient  are  these  loaders  that  a  freight  car  is  loaded  in  twenty  minutes.  Approxi- 
mately 150  loaded  freight  cars  are  sent  out  evx3ry  day.  Besides  these  factory  ship- 
ments there  are  more  than  300  loaded  freight  cars  in  transit  each  day  from  branch 
factories. 

The  bodies  are  shipped  separate  from  the  chassis,  being  stood  on  end  in  one-half 
of  the  car  and  protected  from  dust  by  coverings. 

The  chassis  are  put  in  the  other  end  of  the  car,  the  first  one  being  carried  in, 
minus  the  wheels,  and  placed  in  a  diagonal  position.  Brackets  of  cast  iron,  for  holding 
the  axle  to  the  floor,  are  made  in  the  foundry.  The  front  axle  rests  on  the  floor,  and 
the  rear  axle  rests  against  the  opposite  wall  near  the  top  of  the  car.  A  block,  with  a 
hole  which  just  fits  the  axle,  holds  it  against  the  wall. 

The  next  chassis  is  brought  in  and  placed  with  its  front  axle  opposite  the  first  one. 


530        THE  STORY  OF  AN  AUTOMOBILE  FACTORY 


o 


THE  STORY  OF  AN  AUTOMOBILE  FACTORY        531 


In  this  way  the  chassis  alternate  until  the  car  is  full.  The  space  in  the  center  of  the 
car  contains  the  fenders,  and  other  removable  parts  of  the  equipment. 

Just  beyond  the  loading  docks  is  the  foundry. 

The  foundry  is  one  of  the  most  interesting  divisions  of  the  entire  plant,  and  ranks, 
perhaps,  as  one  of  the  most  unique  in  the  country,  as  far  as  practice  and  equipment 
are  concerned.  As  a  general  rule,  foundry  practice  has  not  shown  the  changes  in  an 
increase  of  production  that  machine  departments  have,  but  in  this  foundry,  due  to 
standardization  of  parts  and  specialization  on  the  one  car,  it  has  been  possible  to 


CRANEWAY,  SHOWING  LOADING  PLATFORMS 

i 

devise  and  install  the  unique  equipment  now  used,  which  brings  this  department. down 
to  the  plane  of  expense  and  up  in  the  labor-saving  efficiency  prevailing  throughout  the 
entire  plant. 

This  department  works  twenty-four  hours  a  day,  in  three  shifts  of  eight  hours 
each ;  iron  is  being  melted  and  poured  continuously  during  the  day  and  first  night 
shifts.  An  average  of  over  400  tons  of  iron  is  poured  daily,  and  426  tons  of  gray  iron 
have  been  poured  in  a  single  day.  This  tonnage  is  especially  interesting,  as  it  is  pro- 
duced on  a  floor  space  of  only  36,324  square  feet. 

All  this  iron  is  poured  on  overhead  power-driven  mold  carriers,  which  travel  about 
twelve  feet  per  minute.  These  mold  carriers  have  suspended  from  them  pendulum- 
like  arms,  on  the  lower  end  of  which  is  a  shelf.  The  molders  who  make  the  molds  for 
the  castings'are  stationed  alongside  of  these  conveyors;  the  molding  sand  with  which 


532        THE  STORY  OF  AN  "AUTOMOBILE  FACTORY 


they  fill  the  flasks  is  stored  overhead  in  a  hopper,  the  gate  of  which  discharges  directly 
onto  the  molding  machine.  There  are  two  molders  for  each  part,  one  making  the 
"drag,"  or  lower  part  of  the  mold,  the  other  making  the  "cope,"  or  the  upper  half. 

When  these  two  halves  of 
the  mold  are  finished  they 
are  put  together;  or  "closed" 
on  the  shelf  of  the  conveyor, 
which  carries  the  finished 
mold  to  the  man  who  pours 
the  molten  metal.  The 
molten  metal  is  brought  to 
this  man's  station  by  means 
of  large  ladles,  suspended 
on  a  trolley  on  an  I-beam 
track,  running  from  the 
cupola  through  the  entire 
length  of  the  foundry.  This 
does  away  with  the  necessity 
of  carrying  the  ladle  of  iron 
a  long  distance,  thus  saving 


CONTINUOUS  CORE-OVEN 


much  time  and  lessening  the 
liability  to  accidents. 
While  the  mold  is  being  poured  it  is  in  constant  motion,  and  continues  so  from 
the  pouring  station  to  the  end  of  the  conveyor,  where  the  casting  is  shaken  out  of  the 
sand.    The  casting  is  thrown  to  one  side  to  cool,  the  flasks  are  hung  upon  hooks  on  the 


QUENCHING  STEEL  FORCINGS  IN  HEAT-TREATMENT  OPERATION 


THE  STORY   OF  AN  AUTOMOBILE  FACTORY 


533 


arm  of  the  conveyor,  to  be  returned  to  the  mpider,  and  the  sand  drops  through  a  grat- 
ing in  the  floor  onto  a  belt  conveyor;  on  this  conveyor  it  is  dropped  on  an  elevator, 
raised  overhead  and  "cut,"  or  mixed  with  new  sand,  and  passed  on  to  another  con- 
veyor, which  deposits  it  in  the  hoppers  above  referred  to,  ready  for  the  molder's  use. 
In  all  this  journey  the  sand  is  never  shoveled. 

In  casting  cylinders,  on  account  of  their  size  and  the  care  needed  in  setting  the 
cores,  a  different  style  conveyor  is  used.  The  molder,  instead  of  putting  the  mold  on 
a  pendulum  conveyor,  places  it  upon  a  track,  where  it  is  moved  by  means  of  a  chain. 
During  this  travel  the  various  cores  are  set, 
and  the  molds  closed,  moving  to  the  point 
where  the  men  with  large  ladles  pour  the 
mold.  From  this  point  it  is  transferred  to 
another  track.  As  it  travels  down  this 
track,  the  casting  is  given  an  opportunity  to 
"set,"  or  cool.  At  the  end  of  this  line  it  is 
shaken  out  over  a  grating,  and  the  sand 
handled  in  the  same  manner  as  on  the 
smaller  conveyors. 

As  soon  as  the  castings  have  cooled  suffi- 
ciently they  are  put  into  great  horizontal 
cylinders,  called  tumblers.  Small  metal 
stars  are  placed  in  these  tumblers  with  the 
castings,  and  when  the  tumbler  is  full  it  is 
started  revolving.  This  shakes  all  the  sand 
from  the  castings  and  they  come  out  clean 
and  bright.  This  process  continues  for  some 
time,  depending  on  the  size  of  the  castings. 
Near  the  tumblers  are  the  grinding  wheels, 
upon  which  are  ground  off  the  rough  edges 
and  the  castings  put  into  shape  for  the  machine 
shop.  They  are  sorted,  inspected  and  counted 
before  removing  from  the  foundry. 

Another  interesting  feature  is  the  han- 
dling of  sand  in  the  core  room.  The  sand  is 
handled  entirely  in  a  gallery  built  above  the 
room,  equipped  with  storage  bins  and  sand 
mixers.  Over  each  core-maker's  bench  is  a  hopper,  connected  with  the  floor  of  the 
gallery.  When  the  sand  is  mixed  it  is  dropped  through  holes  in  the  floor  into  the 
hoppers,  which  deposit  the  sand  on  the  bench-convenient  for  the  core-maker. 

This  core  room  contains  perhaps  the  only  endless  chain  core  oven  in  this  country 
in  which  are  two  endless  chain  conveyors.  These  have  hanging  upon  them  large  sets 
of  shelves,  upon  which  the  cores  are  placed  for  baking.  It  is  impossible  to  over-bake 
or  under-bake  a  core,  as  the  rate  of  travel  of  the  conveyor  is  fixed  at  a  speed  which 
leaves  the  core  in  the  oven  the  correct  length  of  time. 

All  the  aluminum  parts  as  well  as  a  large  proportion  of  the  brass,  are  also  cast  in 
this  foundry. 

The  process  of  heat-treating  steel  forgings  before  they  are  machined  is  one  of  the 
most  scientific  and  accurate  features  in  the  manufacture  of  this  car.  Vanadium  steel 
is  used  throughout  the  construction  of  the  car.  It  has  been  found  from  long  and  deep 
experimental  wprk  by  engineers,  that  the  structural  condition  of  steel  may  be  changed 
by  the  application  of  heat,  and  with  certain  conditions  ascertained,  by  bringing  a  piece 
of  steel  to  a  certain  temperature,  and  then  setting  the  molecular  condition  in  the  steel 
by  sudden  cooling,  or  quenching,  that  the  steel  of  a  crank  shaft  can  be  made  to  stand 


STRAIGHTENING  CRANK  SHAFTS  ON  STEAM 
HAMMERS 


534        THE  STORY  OF  AN  AUTOMOBILE  FACTORY 

impact,  that  the  steel  of  a  front  axle  can  be  made  a  most  efficient  agent  to  withstand 
vibration.  Practically  every  forging  in  the  car  is  made  of  a  special  steel,  for  which  a 
special  formula  of  heat-treating  has  been  worked  out,  in  accordance  with  the  work,  or 
strain,  the  part  must  stand  in  the  finished  car. 

It  is  by  the  use  of  this  high-grade,  scientifically  heat-treated  vanadium  steel  that 
it  is  possible  for  the  company  to  manufacture  a  light-weight  car,  which  has  the 
ability  to  stand  up  under  severe  usage,  and  to  sell  at  the  low  price  at  which  it  is  sold 
today. 

The  heat-treating  department  contains  about  seventy-five  large  furnaces,  which 
consume  from  5,000  to  6,000  gallons  of  fuel  oil  per  day.  It  is  into  these  furnaces  that 


PYROMETERS  BY  WHICH  THE  TEMPERATURE  OF  THE  FURNACES  is  REGULATED 

the  various  forgings  are  placed  for  heat-treating.  In  each  one  is  introduced  a  pyrom- 
eter, connected  electrically  with  a  switchboard  located  in  a  separate  building.  This 
switchboard  is  very  similar  to  those  used  in  telephone  exchanges.  The  operator  takes 
the  temperature  reading  of  every  furnace  on  his  board  about  every  minute.  The 
furnace  foreman  is  notified  by  the  operator  as  to  the  temperature  by  means  of  small 
colored  electric  lights,  located  above  the  furnace.  The  lighting  of  all  the  colors  at  the 
same  time  is  the  signal  to  pull  the  heat  or,  in  other  words,  extinguish  the  fires  and  empty 
the  furnace.  After  the  required  heat  has  been  reached,  the  forgings  are  allowed  to 
either  cool  in  the  air,  be  covered  with  pulverized  mica,  or  quenched  in  a  special  solution, 
as  the  case  may  require. 

In  this  department  are  also  located  many  grinding  wheels  and  tumbling  barrels, 
similar  to  those  used  in  the  foundry,  so  that  the  various  forgings  may  be  put  in  first- 
class  condition  before  they  are  laid  down  in  the  machine  shop. 

The  operations  in  the  manufacture  of  the  crank  case,  or  engine  pan,  of  the  motor 


THE  STORY  OF  AN  AUTOMOBILE  FACTORY        535 


THIS  BELT  CARRIES  THE  FINISHED  PARTS  AND  SCRAPS  FROM  THE  PUNCH  PRESSES 


536 


THE  STORY  OF  AN  AUTOMOBILE  FACTORY 


is  of  interest  for  several  reasons,  and  the  visitor  has  the  opportunity  of  viewing  these 
processes. 

The  crank  case  in  itself  is  interesting  because  it  is  made  from  drawn  sheet  steel, 
instead  of  cast  aluminum,  as  was  once  thought  necessary. 

The  presses  on  which  these  crank  cases  are  drawn  are  especially  worthy  of  note, 


TAKING  INDUSTRIAL  MOTION  PICTURES 
Operator  suspended  from  traveling  crane. 

for  they  weigh  about  fifty  tons  each,  and  exert  a  downward  pressure  of  about  900  tons. 
It  is  necessary  that  this  drawing  be  made  in  four  operations;  the  first  and  second  are 
particularly  interesting,  on  account  of  their  depths,  which  are  5%  and  9^  inches, 
respectively.  After  each  drawing  operation  it  has  been  found  necessary  that  the 
case  be  annealed,  to  restore  the  strained  or  calloused  surface  produced  at  certain 
points  by  contact  with  the  dies  to  a  soft,  ductile  condition,  to  conform  to  the 


THE  STORY  OF  AN  AUTOMOBILE  FACTORY        537 

balance  of  the  case,  or,  in  other  words,  to  produce  a  homogeneous  condition  of  the 
surface. 

This  annealing  is  accomplished  by  a  furnace  through  which  the  cases  are  moved 
by  a  chain  conveyor  onto  an  elevator  which  raises  them  up  through  the  roof,  and  down 
again,  depositing  them  near  the  press  which  is  to  perform  the  next  drawing  operation. 
While  moving  on  this  elevator  the  cases  are  cooled  so  that  they  can  be  handled  as 
soon  as  they  are  lowered. 

After  the  drawing  operations  have  been  completed,  the  case  is  trimmed;  the  side 


ASSEMBLING  INDUSTRIAL  MOTION  PICTURE  FILMS 

arms,  front  end  supports,  radius  rod  support,  are  riveted  and  brazed  to  it,  making  a 
case  as  strong  and  solid,  and  yet  as  light,  as  it  is  possible  to  make. 

Near  these  crank  case  presses  are  located  several  hundred  punch  and  draw- 
ing presses  of  various  sizes.  These  presses  blank  out  and  draw  from  sheet  steel  of 
special  analysis,  a  large  number  of  parts  (which  in  ordinary  practice  are  made  from 
castings  or  forgings),  carrying  the  same  strength,  but  also  very  much  lighter  in 
weight. 

The  interesting  feature  of  this  department  is  the  arrangement  of  the  presses, 
which  enables  all  finished  parts,  as  well  as  the  scrap  steel,  to  be  deposited  upon  a 
traveling  belt  conveyor,  at  the  end  of  which  are  stationed  men  who  sort  the  various 
parts,  and  place  them  in  proper  receptacles.  By  this  arrangement  it  is  possible  to 
place  the  presses  closer  together  than  could  be  done  if  it  were  necessary  to  leave  aisles 
large  enough  for  trucking  the  material  to  and  from  the  presses,  effecting  a  great  saving 
in  floor  space. 

The  pictures  with  which  this  story  is  illustrated  were  all  made  by  the  photographic 
department  of  the  company,  and  are  but  a  few  of  the  thousands  on  file,  portraying 


538 


THE  STORY  OF  AN  AUTOMOBILE  FACTORY 


41 

a  § 
<)    o 

CO      — 

Jl 

H  +> 


THE  STORY  OF  AN  AUTOMOBILE  FACTORY        539 

details  of  every  operation  in  the  manufacture  of  a  car.  The  department  is  completely 
equipped  to  take  and  produce  motion  picture  films  of  the  highest  quality. 

The  growth  of  this  department,  in  its  own  peculiar  field,  has  kept  pace  with  the 
growth  of  the  company  as  an  industrial  factor.  But  a  few  years  ago,  this  department 
was  an  incident  only.  The  quarters  were  small,  the  staff  was  composed  of  two  men, 
and  the  entire  work  was  confined  to  making  photographs  of  the  cars  and  parts  for 
advertising  literature. 

A  modern  studio  is  now  maintained  on  the  fourth  floor  of  the  factory — the  staff 
of  skilled  operators  numbering  twenty. 

The  moving  picture  portion  of  the  company's  work  is,  in  volume,  the  largest  con- 
ducted by  any  industrial  concern.  As  a  matter  of  interest,  it  is  estimated  that  the 
operations  of  this  department  in  the  "  mo  vie"  field  are  equal  in  magnitude  to  the 
efforts  of  many  of  the  better  known  film-producing  studios  which  specialize  in  such 
work.  And,  large  as  the  scope  of  operations  already  is,  it  is  still  growing,  in  response 
to  an  increasing  demand  for  pictures  of  the  factory  as  well  as  of  events  of  general 
interest. 


The  expression  "The  tune  that  the  old  cow  died  of"  has  been  used  to  express 
the  giving  of  advice  instead  of  material  help,  because  of  an  old  song  which  told  of 
a  man  who  had  nothing  to  feed  his  cow  upon  and  so  played  her  this  tune:  " Con- 
sider, good  cow,  consider.  This  isn't  the  time  for  grass  to  grow." 

How  do  Big  Buildings  Get  their  Granite? 

Stones  suitable  for  important  building  purposes  are  usually  found  at  a  good 
distance  below  the  surface.  In  the  case  of  unstratified  rocks,  such  as  granite,  the 
stone  is  most  frequently  detached  from  the  mass  by  blasting,  a  process  by  which 
much  valuable  stone  is  wasted,  and  a  different  method  is  employed  whenever  it  is 
found  possible.  In  the  case  of  stratified  rocks,  blocks  are  separated  by  hand  tools 
alone.  Small  holes  a  few  inches  apart  are  cut  along  a  certain  length  of  rock,  into 
which  steel  wedges  are  inserted.  These  are  driven  in  by  heavy  hammers  until  the 
stratum  is  cut  through.  The  large  blocks  necessary  for  monumental  purposes  are 
generally  obtained  in  this  way,  and  before  they  leave  the  quarry  they  are  usually 
reduced  as  nearly  as  possible  to  a  rectangular  form. 

Granite  is  a  fire-formed  rock  which  has  been  exposed  to  great  heat  and  pres- 
sure deep  down  in  the  earth.  It  is  one  of  the  most  abundant  of  that  species  of  rocks 
seen  at  or  near  the  surface  of  the  earth,  and  was  formerly  considered  as  the  founda- 
tion rock  of  the  globe,  or  that  upon  which  all  sedimentary  rocks  repose.  Granite 
supplies  the  most  durable  materials  for  building,  as  many  of  the  ancient  Egyptian 
monuments  testify.  It  varies  a  great  deal  in  hardness  as  well  as  in  color  and  for 
that  reason  must  be  selected  with  care  when  desired  for  building  purposes. 

Granite  abounds  in  crystallized  earthy  materials,  and  these  occur  for  the  most 
part  in  veins  traversing  the  mass  of  the  rock.  Of  these  minerals,  beryl,  garnet  and 
tourmaline  are  the  most  abundant.  The  decomposed  felspar  of  some  varieties  of 
granite  yields  the  kaolin  used  in  porcelain  manufacture.  Granite  is  not  rich  in 
mineral  ores. 

It  is  abundant  in  America  and  is  largely  quarried  in  the  United  States  for  build- 
ing purposes,  especially  in  New  England.  The  best  known  quarries  are  those  of 
New  England.  There  is  a  great  deal  of  granite  found  in  South  Carolina  and  Georgia, 
but  much  of  this,  as  well  as  that  of  some  parts  of  California,  is  in  a  singular  state  of 
decomposition,  in  many  places  being  easily  penetrated  by  a  pick.  Granite  quarried 
anywhere  in  which  felspar  predominates  is  not  well  adapted  for  buildings,  as  it  cracks 
and  crumbles  down  in  a  few  years. 


540    HOW  DO  BIG  BUILDINGS  GET  THEIR  GRANITE 


RAILROAD  SCENES  FROM  SHOP  AND  ROAD         541 


THE  PENNSYLVANIA  RAILROAD  COMPANY'S  "BROADWAY  LIMITED,"  A  TWENTY-HOUR  TRAIN 
BETWEEN  NEW  YORK  AND  CHICAGO* 


ALL-STEEL  PASSENGER  TRAIN,  DRAWN  BY  ELECTRIC  LOCOMOTIVE,  AS  USED  IN  THE  NEW  YORK 
TUNNELS  OF  THE  PENNSYLVANIA  RAILROAD* 


•Courtesy  of  the  Pennsylvania  Railroad  Co. 


542          RAILROAD  SCENES  FROM  SHOP  AND  ROAD 


ELECTRIC  TRAIN  ON  THE  MAIN  LINE  OP  THE  PENNSYLVANIA  RAILROAD* 


LOCOMOTIVE  EQUIPPED  WITH  FIRE-FIGHTING  APPARATUS* 


'Courtesy  of  the  Pennsylvania  Railroad  Co. 


RAILROAD  SCENES  FROM  SHOP  AND  ROAD          543 


TRAIN  OP  120  LOADED  COAL  CARS  DRAWN  BY  A  SINGLE  LOCOMOTIVE* 


EXPRESS  TRAIN  READY   TO  LEAVE  THE  BROAD  STREET  STATION  OP  THE  PENNSYLVANIA 
.'    ;*^:  RAILROAD  AT  PHILADELPHIA* 


*  Courtesy  of  the  Pennsylvania  Railroad  Co.    % 


544 


RAILROAD  SCENES  FROM  SHOP  AND  ROAD 


I  s 

§  .-S 


«  8 

5       -O 

i! 


3! 

.2 
o 

§ 
9 


CJ       03 

•xs    £ 


RAILROAD  SCENES  FROM  SHOP  AND  ROAD          545 


A  STRING  OP  ALL-STEEL  FREIGHT  CARS  JUST  TURNED  Our  OP  THE  SHOPS* 


ELECTRIC  BAGGAGE  TRUCK  HAULING  TRAILERS* 


*  Courtesy  of  the  Pennsylvania  Railroad  Co. 
35 


546         RAILROAD  SCENES  FROM  SHOP  AND  ROAD 


BIRD'S-EYE  VIEW  or  THE  PENNSYLVANIA  STATION,  NEW  YORK  CITY* 


, 


THE  "UNION  STATION"  AT  WASHINGTON,  D,  C,* 


*Courteey  of  the  Pennsylvania  Railroad  Co. 


RAILROAD  SCENES  FROM  SHOP  AND  ROAD         547 


FREIGHT  TRAIN,  EASTBOUND,  ON  THE  HORSESHOE  CURVE* 


OVEN  FOR  DRYING  PAINT  ON  PASSENGER  CARS  AT  THE  ALTOONA,  PA.,  SHOPS  OF  THE  PENN- 
SYLVANIA RAILR.QAP 


*  Courtesy  of  the  Pennsylvania  Railroad  CQ, 


548 


RAILROAD  SCENES  FROM  SHOP  AND  ROAD 


LOCOMOTIVE  BUILDING 

View  in  the  erecting  shop  where  the  locomotives  are  assembled.     The  traveling 
crane  in  the  foreground  is  capable  of  transporting  a  locomotive  to  any  part  of  the 


Courtesy  of  the  Baldwin  Locomotive  Works. 


RAILROAD  SCENES  FROM  SHOP  AND  ROAD         549 


650         RAILROAD  SCENES  PROM  SHOP  AND  ROAD 


FREIGHT  LOCOMOTIVE — THE  DELAWARE  &  HUDSON  C& 
Built  by  American  Locomotive  Company. 


FOUNDRY 
Schenectady,  N.  Y.,  Works,  American  Locomotive  Company 


PACIFIC  TYPE  PASSENGER  LOCOMOTIVE — NEW  YORK  CENTRAL  R.  R. 
Built  by  American  Locomotive  Company. 


RAILROAD  SCENES  FROM  SHOP  AND  ROAD          551 


4-8-2  TYPE  PASSENGER  LOCOMOTIVE — CHICAGO,  ROCK  ISLAND  &  PACIFIC  R.  R. 
Built  by  American  Locomotive  Company. 


MACHINE  SHOP 
Schenectady.  N.  Y.,  Works,  American  Locomotive  Company. 


552          RAILROAD  SCENES  FROM  SHOP  AND  ROAD 


MIKADO  TYPE  FREIGHT  LOCOMOTIVE — DELAWARE,  LACKAWANNA  &  WESTERN  R.  R. 
Built  by  American  Locomotive  Company. 


ROD  SHOP 
Schenectady,  N.  Y.,  Works,  American  Locomotive  Company. 


RAILROAD  SCENES  FROM  SHOP  AND  ROAD         553 


MALLET  TYPE  FREIGHT  LOCOMOTIVE — BALTIMORE  &  OHIO  R.  R. 
Built  by  American  Locomotive  Company. 


CYLINDER  SHOP 
Schenectady,  N.  Y.,  Works,  American  Locomotive  Company. 


554         RAILROAD  SCENES  FROM  SHOP  AND  ROAD 


2-10-2  TYPE  FREIGHT  LOCOMOTIVE— NEW  YORK,  ONTARIO  &  WESTERN  R.  R. 
Built  by  American  Locomotive  Company. 


ERECTING  SHOP 
Schenectady,  N.  Y.,  Works,  American  Locomotive  Company. 


RAILROAD  SCENES  FROM  SHOP  AND  ROAD         555 


NEW  YORK  CENTRAL  ELECTRIC  LOCOMOTIVE* 


PENNSYLVANIA  RAILROAD  ELECTRIC  LOCOMOTIVE  f 
Two  of  the  best  known  types  of  electric  locomotive.  The  New  York  Central  type 
is  43  feet  long,  14  feet  9^  inches  high,  and  weighs  230,000  pounds.  It  is  equipped 
with  four  550-horse-power  motors  and  has  a  maximum  speed  of  60  miles  per  hour  The 
Pennsylvania  type  is  the  latest  development.  It  is  built  in  two  halves  for  flexibility 
and  either  half  may  be  replaced  during  repairs.  The  complete  unit  weighs  157  tons,  is 
64  feet  11  inches  long,  and  the  motors  have  combined  horse-power  of  4,000,  giving  a 
draw-bar  pull  of  79,200  pounds,  and  a  speed  of  60  miles  per  hour. 


*  Courtesy  of  the  General  Electric  Co.        f  Courtesy  of  the  Westinahouse  Co. 


The  Story  of  an  Up-to-Date  Farm 


A  man  who  had  been  tied  in  a  great  city  all  his  life  made  his  first  visit  the  other 
day  to  an  up-to-date  farm.  He  was  so  surprised  at  what  he  saw  that  he  wrote  a  letter 
describing  his  emotions.  Some  of  it  is  worth  quoting  because  it  shows  a  picture  of 
the  modern  farm  as  it  was  cast  upon  the  eye  of  a  man  who  had  never  seen  it  before. 

"I  was  whisked  from  the  railway  station  in  a  big  touring  car,  through  beautiful 
country.  Then  we  turned  up  a  flower  and  shrub  lined  concrete  driveway,  and  stopped 


THE  WOMAN  ON  THE  FARM  AT  LAST  ENJOYING  THE  BENEFIT  OF  LABOR-SAVING  MACHINES 

This  small  mounted  kerosene  engine  runs  the  washing  machine,  pump,  cream  separator  and 
churn.  It  is  easily  drawn  about  from  place  to  place  by  hand  where  its  energy  is  needed  to 
lighten  the  housework. 

by  a  home,  capacious  and  modern.  Inside  I  found  electric  lights,  electric  iron  and 
bathroom  with  running  water. 

"I  found  that  the  good  man  of  the  house  had  his  own  electric  light  and  water 
plant,  run  by  kerosene  engines,  that  his  cows  were  milked  automatically,  that  he 
pulled  his  plows,  harrows,  drills,  manure  spreader  and  binder  with  a  kerosene  tractor, 
that  his  hired  men  went  about  the  farm  doing  everything  as  they  rode  on  some 
machine,  that  he  went  to  church  and  town  in  an  automobile,  and  that  he  delivered 
the  products  of  his  farm  to  market  with  a  motor  truck.  Everything  was  managed 
like  a  factory.  Things  went  forward  with  order  and  with  assurance.  Everyone 
was  busy  and  happy." 

This  is  an  optimistic  picture  of  one  of  our  best  farms,  but  compare  it  with  the 

*  Illustrations  by  courtesy  of  International  Harvester  Company  of  America,  unless  otherwise  indicated 

(556) 


THE  STORY  OF  AN  UP-TO-DATE  FARM 


557 


best  that  could  be  found  only  a  few  hundred  years  ago.  The  best  farmer  of  those 
days  held  all  the  land  for  miles  around  and  lived  in  a  castle  in  the  middle  of  it.  The 
castle  was  dark  and  cold  and  was  made  of  rough  stones  fitted  together.  The  poor 
farmers  were  serfs  and  came  two  or  three  days  out  of  a  week  to  their  master's  house 
to  work.  Those  were  the  great  days  of  their  lives,  for  then  they  ate  of  the  master's  food. 
Food — that  was  the  problem  of  those  long  tired  years  which  dragged  through 
the  ages,  when  nearly  everyone  was  a  farmer,  and  a  farmer  with  crude  tools  held  in 
his  hands.  Time  was  when 
practically  the  whole  world 
went  to  bed  hungry  and  rose 
again  in  the  morning  craving 
food,  just  as  half  the  millions 
of  India  do  today  because 


THE  MOTOR  TRUCK  MAY  BE  USED  BY  THE    FARMER  EVEN 
IN  HILLY  AND  MOUNTAINOUS  PLACES 

This  photograph  was  taken  near  the  summit  of  Pike's  Peak. 


they    do    with    their   hands 
what  a  machine  should  do. 

People  in  the  hungry, 
unfed  ages  grew  so  used  to 
privation  that  even  the 
philosophers  accepted  sorrow 
and  woe  as  a  matter  of 
course  and  dilated  upon  their 
virtues  for  chastening  the 

human  soul.  "It  is  better  to  go  to  the  house  of  mourning  than  the  house  of  mirth," 
said  one  of  the  prophets,  and  such  words  brought  comfort  to  the  hungry,  miserable 
millions  who  had  to  mourn  and  go  hungry  whether  it  was  to  their  advantage  or  not. 

Today  the  years  glide  by  like  pleasant  pictures.  We  are  fed,  busy  and  happy. 
We  almost  let  the  dead  bury  their  dead  today  while  the  living  drive  forward  their 
tasks,  achieving  as  much  in  a  year  as  the  old  ages  did  in  twenty.  We  have  learned 
to  iteed  ourselves  and  the  food  fills  our  bodies  and  brains  with  energy  which  must 
find  expression  in  useful  accomplishment.  "Blessed  is  he  who  has  found  his  work 


THE  REAPING  HOOK  WAS  THE  FIRST  IMPLEMENT  USED  FOR  HARVESTING  GRAIN  OP  WHICH 

WE  HAVE  RECORD 

This  pictures  the  reaping  hook  as  still  used  in  India. 


558 


THE  STORY  'OF  AN  UP-TO-DATE  FARM 


to  do,"  we  say  nowadays,  "but  thrice  blessed  is  he  who  has  found  a  machine  to  do 
it  for  him." 

Thread  your  way  back  through  history  to  the  time  when  the  slender  lives  of  men 
expanded  into  full  and  useful  employment,  and  you  will  find  that,  so  far  as  raising  the 


THE  SCYTHE  is  A  DEVELOPMENT  OP  THE  REAPING  HOOK 
The  blade  was  made  larger  and  the  handle  longer  so  two  hands  could  be  used. 

world's  food  is  concerned,  it  all  began  with  the  invention  of  the  reaper  in  only  the 
last  century.  It  is  interesting  to  know  something  of  the  precarious  entry  of  this 
machine  and  something  of  the  dark  background  from  which  it  emerged. 

The  Reaping  Hook  or  Sickle. 

From  the  first  pages  of  history  we  find  that  the  reaping  hook  or  sickle  is  the 
earliest  tool  for  harvesting  grain  of  which  we  have  record.     Pliny,  in  describing 


THE  STORY  OF  AN  UP-TO-DATE  FARM 


559 


the  practice  of  reaping  wheat  says,  "One  method  is  by  means  of  reaping  hooks,  by 
which  the  straws  are  cut  off  in  the  middle  with  sickles  and  the  heads  detached  by  a 
pair  of  shears."  Primitive  sickles  or  reaping  hooks  made  of  flint  or  bronze  are 
found  among  the  remains  left  by  the  older  nations.  Pictures  made  in  1400  or  1500 
B.  C.  upon  the  tombs  at  Thebes  in  Egypt,  which  are  still  legible,  show  slaves  reaping 
with  sickles.  This  crude  tool,  brought  into  use  by  ancient  Egypt,  remained  almost 
stationary  as  to  form  and  method  of  use  until  the  middle  of  the  last  century. 

The  scythe,  which  is  a  development  from  the  sickle,  enables  the  operator  to 


THE  CRADLE  WAS  DEVELOPED  IN  AMERICA  BETWEEN  1776  AND  1800  AND  is  AN  OUTGROWTH 
OF  THE  SCYTHE.     IT  is  STILL  USED  IN  SOME  PLACES 

use  both  hands  instead  of  one.     The  scythe  is  still  a  familiar  tool  on  our  farms,  but 
it  serves  other  purposes  than  that  of  being  the  sole  means  of  harvesting  grain. 

The  Cradle. 

Gradually  the  blade  of  the  scythe  was  made  lighter,  the  handle  was  lengthened, 
and  fingers  added  to  collect  the  grain  and  carry  it  to  the  end  of  the  stroke.  With 
the  cradle  the  cut  swath  could  be  laid  down  neatly  for  drying  preparatory  to  being 
bound  into  bundles.  This  tool  is  distinctly  an  American  development.  The 
colonists,  when  they  settled  in  this  country,  probably  brought  with  them  all  the 
European  types  of  sickles  and  scythes,  and  out  of  them  evolved  the  cradle. 

With  the  cradle  in  heavy  grain  an  experienced  man  could  cut  about  two  acres 
a  day,  and  another  man  could  rake  and  bind  it  into  sheaves,  so  that  two  men  with 
the  cradle  could  do  the  work  of  six  or  seven  men  with  sickles. 

The  American  cradle  stands  at  the  head  of  all  hand  tools  devised  for  the  har- 
vesting of  gram.  When  it  was  once  perfected,  it  soon  spread  to  all  countries  with 
very  little  change  in  form.  Although  it  has  been  displaced  almost  entirely  by  the 
modern  reaper,  yet  there  are  places  in  this  country  and  abroad  where  conditions 
are  such  that  reaping  machines  are  impractical  and  where  the  cradle  still  has 
work  to  do. 


560 


THE  STORY  OF  AN  UP-TO-DATE  FARM 


HARVESTING  IN  THE  WESI 

Reproduced  by  permission  of  the  Philadelphia  Museums. 


THRESHER 

The  upper  view  shows  side-hill  harvesters  drawn  by  teams  of  twenty-eight  horses 
each  The  machines  cut  the  grain,  and  tie  it  up  in  bundles,  which  are  dropped  along- 
side The  machine  in  the  lower  view  is  self-propelling,  cuts  and  threshes  the  gram, 
throwing  out  the  straw,  and  places  the  grain  in  sacks  ready  for  loading  on  the  wagon. 

Reproduced  by  permission  of  the  Philadelphia  Museums. 


THE  STORY  OF  AN  UP-TO-DATE  FARM 


561 


Early  Attempts  to  Harvest  with  Machines. 

The  beginning  of  practical  efforts  in  the  direction  of  harvesting  by  wholly  mechan- 
ical means  may  be  said  to  date  from  the  beginning  of  the  last  century,  about  the  year 
1800,  although  very  little  progress  was  made  from  that  time  up  to  the  year  1831. 

It  is  true  that  the  Gauls  made  use  of  an  instrument  nearly  two  thousand  years 
before,  but  this  contrivance  fell  into  disuse  with  the  decline  of  the  Gallic  fields. 
Pliny  describes  this  machine  which  was  used  early  in  the  first  century  and  which 
might  be  termed  a  stripping  header.  Palladius,  four  centuries  later,  describes  the 
same  sort  of  machine.  This  device  of  the  Gauls  had  lance-shaped  knives,  or  teeth 


THE  MOWING  MACHINE  HAS  REPLACED  THE  SCYTHE  FOR  CUTTING  HAY,  AND  THE  KEROSENE    ] 
TRACTOR  HAS  REPLACED  EXPENSIVE  HORSE  POWER  FOR  PULLING  THE  MOWERS 

The  tractor  has  10  H.  P.  on  the  drawbar  and  is  pulling  three  mowers,  laying  down  a  swath  of 

hay  21  feet  wide. 

with  sharpened  sides,  projecting  from  a  bar,  like  guard  teeth,  but  set  close  together 
to  form  a  sort  of  comb.  As  it  was  pushed  forward,  the  stalks  next  the  heads  came 
between  these  sharp  teeth  and  were  cut  or  stripped  off  into  a  box  attached  to  and 
behind  the  cutter  bar  and  carried  by  two  wheels.  When  the  box  was  filled  with 
heads,  the  machine  was  driven  in  and  emptied.  This  is  the  way  in  which  it  is  supposed 
that  it  was  worked,  and  the  illustration  is  the  generally  accepted  representation  of 
it  as  roughly  reconstructed  from  the  old  Latin  description  of  Pliny. 

Near  the  close  of  the  past  century,  the  subject  of  grain-reaping  machines  again 
began  to  claim  the  attention  of  inventors.  In  July,  1799,  the  first  English  patent 
was  granted  to  Joseph  Boyce.  In  1806,  Gladstone  of  England  built  and  patented  a 
machine  which  not  only  attempted  to  cut  the  grain,  but  also  to  deliver  it  in  gavels 
to  be  bound.  In  1807,  Plucknett  and  Salmon  both  patented  machines.  In  1811, 
Smith  and  Kerr  took  out  patents.  In  1822,  Henry  Ogle,  a  schoolmaster  of  Rennington, 
assisted  by  Thomas  and  Joseph  Brown,  invented  the  so-called  Ogle  reaper.  The 
next,  and  last,  reaper  of  this  period  was  invented  by  Patrick  Bell  of  Carmvllie, 
Scotland,  in  1826. 

86 


562 


THE  STORY  OF  AN  UP-TO-DATE  FARM 


Nearly  all  of  these  early  reapers  relied  upon  scythes  or  cutters  with  a  rotary 
motion  or  vibrating  shears.  This  method  of  cutting  was  essentially  wrong,  and  none 
of  the  machines  ever  appeared  to  have  gained  or  long  retained  the  favor  of  the  farmers. 
That  these  early  attempts  were  all  unsuccessful  is  evidenced  by  the  fact  that  at  the 

great  World's  Fair  in  Lon- 
don in  1851,  the  United 
Kingdom  could  not  present  a 
single  reaping  machine. 
English  journals  and  writers 
of  that  period,  without  a  sin- 
gle exception,  spoke  of  the 
American  reapers  which  wen- 
exhibited  as  "  completely  suc- 
cessful." For  the  real  pro- 
gress towards  solving  the 
problem  of  harvesting  grain 
with  machines  we  must  turn 
to  America. 

American  invention  in 
this  line,  so  far  as  there  is 
any  record,  began  with  the 
patent  issued  to  Richard 
French  and  T.  J.  Hawkins 
of  New  Jersey,  May  17, 1803. 

No  reliable  description  of  this  machine  seems  to  be  extant.  Five  patents  of  no  impor- 
tance were  issued  between  that  time  and  1822,  when  Bailey  took  out  a  patent. 
Cope  and  Cooper  of  Pennsylvania  obtained  a  patent  in  1826,  and  Manning  obtained 
one  in  1831. 

Up  to  1831,  no  successful  and  practical  reaper  had  been  developed.     With  all 


THE  McCoRMicK  REAPER  OF  1845 


A  CORN  BINDER  Curs  THE  HEAVIEST  CORN  WITH  EASE 


THE  STORY  OF  AN  UP-TO-DATE  FARM 


563 


A  VIEW  OF  THE  FIRST  McCoRMiCK  REAPER  OF  1831  AS  USED  IN  THE  FIELD 

the  patents  taken  out  in  England,  and  with  those  taken  out  in  America  from  1803 
down  to  1831,  we  might  say  that  nothing  had  been  accomplished  toward  perfecting  a 
reaping  machine  which  actually  worked  successfully. 

The  First  Successful  Reaper. 

In  1831  came  McCormick's  reaper,  the  first  practical  machine  of  its  kind  ever 
taken  into  the  field.  It  was  crude  at  first,  but  improved  from  year  to  year.  Although 
McCormick's  reaper  was  not  patented  until  1834,  one  year  after  the  patent  granted 
to  Obed  Hussey  for  his  reaper,  young  McCormick  gave  a  public  exhibition  in  Virginia 
three  years  before,  in  1831.  It  was  in  the  fall  of  that  year  when  Cyrus  McCormick 


THE  McCoRMicK  REAPER  OF  1845  IN  THE  FIELD,  WITH  A  SEAT  ADDED  FOR  THE  RAEEB 
Formerly  the  raker  walked  by  the  side  of  the  machine. 


564 


THE  STORY  OF  AN  UP-TO-DATE  FARM 


hitched  four  horses  to  his  machine,  which 
at  Steel's  Tavern,  and  drove  into  a  field 
adjoining  his  father's.  The  reproduction 
indicates  the  interest  of  the  neighbors  in 


McCoKMicK  REAPER  OF  1858 

1831  and  abandoned  it,  and  in  that  same 
started  the  world  toward  cheaper  bread. 

The  first  practical  reaper  taken  into 
parts  of  the  reaper  with 
which  we  are  familiar.  It  had 
a  platform  for  receiving  the 
grain,  a  knife  for  cutting  it, 
supported  bv  stationary  fin- 
gers over  the  edge,  and  a  reel 
to  gather  it.  The  driver  of 
the  machine  rode  one  of  the 
horses,  while  the  man  who 
raked  off  the  grain  walked 
by  the  side  of  the  machine. 


Development  of  the  Reaper. 

The  ten  years  following 
this  first  instance  of  a  suc- 
cessful reaper  were  strenuous 
times  indeed  for  Cyrus 
McCormick,  for  it  was  not 
until  1840  or  1841  that  he  was 
able  to  make  his  first  sale. 
Twenty  more  were  sold  in 
1843  and  fifty  in  1844. 

During  all    these   years 


had  been  built  in  the  old  blacksmith  shop 
of  late  oats  on  the  farm  of  John  Steele, 
of  an  old  lithograph  depicting  this  scene 
this  event.  Although  the  United  States 
had  been  established  more 
than  fifty  years  past,  this  was 
the  first  grain  that  had  ever 
been  cut  by  machinery. 
McCormick's  machine  con- 
tinued to  operate  to  the  sur- 
prise of  everyone  and  in  less 
than  half  a  day  had  reaped 
six  acres  of  oats — as  much  as 
six  men  would  have  done  by 
the  old-fashioned  method. 

This  was  not  the  first 
attempt  of  a  McCormick  to 
solve  the  problem  of  harvest- 
ing wheat  by  machinery,  for 
Robert  McCormick,  the 
father  of  Cyrus,  had,  himself, 
worked  on  a  machine  of  this 
kind  as  far  back  as  1816. 
His  father  tried  it  again  in 
year  the  son  Cyrus  took  up  the  work  and 

the  field  in  1831  embodied  the  essential 


THE  PROGRESSIVE  FARMER  OF  TOD  AY  DOES  NOT  LET  His 
CORNSTALKS  GO  TO  WASTE  IN  THE  FIELD,  BUT  CUTS  THEM 
WITH  A  CORN  BINDER  AND  EITHER  PUTS  THEM  INTO  A  SILO 
OR  SHREDS  THEM  INTO  STOVER  FOR  His  HAY-LOFT 
This  picture  shows  the  husker  and  shredder  in  operation  with 
kerosene  for  power. 


from  1831  to  1844  Mr.  McCormick  was  diligently  at  work  changing,  testing  and 
experimenting.  In  1845  he  secured  a  second  patent,  which  embodied  many 
improvements — the  principal  ones  referring  to  the  cutting  mechanism. 


THE  STORY  OF  AN  UP-TO-DATE  FARM 


565 


THE  McCoRMiCK  REAPER  OF  1858  IN  THE  FIELD 

Note  that  an  automatic  raker  has  been  substituted  for  the  man  who  rode  on  the  machine  and 

raked  off  the  cut  grain. 

•In  this  year,  Mr.  McCormick  started  for  the  western  prairie,  and  in  1847  built 
his  own  factory  in  Chicago,  thus  starting  the  world's  greatest  reaper  works.  This 
factory,  known  as  "McCormick  Works,"  is  still  in  progress.  It  covers  today  more 
than  120  acres  in  the  heart  of  Chicago,  and  has  an  annual  capacity  of  375,000  machines 
of  all  types. 

The  third  step  in  the  development  of  the  reaper  was  the  addition  to  the  machine 
of  a  seat  for  carrying  the  raker.  The  machine  built  in  1831  required  that  the  raker 
walk  by  the  side  of  the  machine.  In  1845  Mr.  McCormick  added  the  seat,  patent 
for  which  was  added  in  1847.  This  seat  which  carried  the  raker  enabled  him  while 


A  MARSH  HARVESTER  AS  BUILT  BY  THE  MCCORMICK  COMPANY  IN  1874 
Note  the  two  men  riding  on  the  platform  and  binding  up  the  grain  as  delivered  to  them  by  the 

elevator  of  the  machine. 


566 


THE  STORY  OF  AN  UP-TO-DATE  FARM 


riding  to  rake  the  grain  from  the  platform  and  deposit  it  in  gavels  on  the  ground. 
This  type  of  reaper,  patented  in  1847,  is  the  one  taken  by  Cyrus  H.  McCormick  to 
the  first  world's  fair  held  in  London,  England,  in  1851,  and  about  which  the  records 
of  that  exposition  state  "The  McCormick  reaper  is  the  most  valuable  article  contri- 
buted to  this  exposition,  and  for  its  originality  and  value  and  perfect  work  in  the 
field  it  is  awarded  the  council  medal." 

This  same  reaper  received  the  grand  prize  in  Paris  in  1855  and  is  the  reaper  which 
created  so  much  surprise  in  the  world's  fair  in  London  that  the  comments  made 
by  the  press  demonstrated  beyond  a  doubt  that  England  had  not  as  yet  built  a  suc- 


A  MCCORMICK  HEADER  BINDER  WHICH  ELEVATES  THE  GRAIN  INTO  WAGONS  WHICH  DRIVE 

ALONGSIDE 

cessful  reaper.  In  1858  the  machine  was  further  improved  by  substituting  an 
automatic  rake  for  the  raker  on  the  machine. 

Many  other  patents  were  granted  from  time  to  time  until  1870,  when  the  founda- 
tion features  of  all  reapers  had  been  invented  and  substantially  perfected.  The 
reaper  is  still  used  extensively,  especially  in  foreign  countries. 

The  interest  in  this  machine  centers  not  in  its  development  as  used  today,  but 
in  the  fact  that  it  led  to  the  invention  and  perfection  of  th,e  self-binder. 

The  prototype  of  all  machines  designed  to  bind  the  grain  before  being  delivered 
to  the  ground  is  the  Marsh  harvester.  It  is  the  half-way  mark,  the  child  of  the 
reaper  and  the  parent  of  the  self-binder.  The  original  patent  for  this  machine  was 
granted  August  17,  1858,  to  two  farmer  boys  of  De  Kalb,  Illinois,  the  Marsh  brothers. 

Previous  to  this  time,  attempts  had  been  made  to  build  harvesting  machines 
which  would  bind  the  grain  before  delivered  to  the  ground,  but  not  one  could  be 
considered  a  success.  At  the  time  the  Marsh  harvester  began  seeking  a  place  in 
the  market,  about  1860,  reapers — hand-rakers,  self-rakers,  and  droppers — held 
the  trade  substantially  to  the  exclusion  of  any  other  kind  of  harvesting  machine. 

The  first  successful  Marsh  harvester,  built  in  1858,  was  operated  through  the 
harvest  of  that  year.  It  has  never  been  changed  materially  in  principle  or  form 


THE  STORY  OF  AN  UP-TO-DATE  FARM 


567 


568 


THE  STORY  OP  AN  UP-TO-DATE 1  FARM 


since.  The  theory  of  the  inventors  was  that  two  men  might  bind  the  grain  cut  by 
the  five-foot  sickle  in  ordinary  motion  provided  it  could  be  delivered  to  them  in  the 
best  possible  position  and  condition  for  binding  and  if  they  could  have  perfect  freedom 
of  action.  They  knew  that  the  binders  must  have  a  free  swing  and  open  chance 
at  the  grain  to  enable  them  to  handle  it,  so  they  arranged  the  elevated  delivery, 
the  receptacle,  the  tables  and  the  platform  for  the  man  with  these  things  in  view. 

The  second  Marsh  harvester  was  built  in  Chicago  in  1859.  Improvements 
were  made  during  the  years  1861,  1862  and  1863.  The  manufacture  of  the  Marsh 
harvester  began  in  earnest  at  Piano  in  the  fall  of  1863  by  Stewart  and  Marsh, 
twenty-five  machines  being  put  out  in  1864. 

In  1875  McCormick  began  putting  out  harvesters  of  the  Marsh  type.     Of 


No  MORE  TIRESOME  HAY  PITCHING  ON  THIS  FARM,  WHERE  HAY  LOADERS  ELEVATE  THE 

HAY  TO  THE  MEN  ON  THE  WAGONS 

The  small  kerosene  tractor  has  taken  the  place  of  horses  and  is  drawing  two  wagons  at  a  time. 

straight  Marsh  harvesters — carrying  a  man  to  bind — there  had  been  made  up  to 
and  including  1879  over  100,000,  of  which  about  two-thirds  had  been  produced  by 
the  Marr.n  combination  and  the  rest  by  outsiders. 

The  Self-Binder. 

The  development  of  the  automatic  binder  followed  quickly  after  the  intro- 
duction of  the  Marsh  harvester,  although  attempts  Were  made  to  perfect  this 
machine  as  early  as  1850. 

The  self-binding  harvester  was  borne  on  the  shoulders  of  the  Marsh  harvester. 
Carpenter,  Locke,  Gordon,  Appleby  and  every  inventor  who  succeeded  in  any 
measure  in  binding  gram,  first  did  so  by  placing  his  binding  attachment  upon  a 
Marsh  harvester,  taking  the  grain  from  a  receptacle  where  it  fell  to  another  receptacle 
where  it  was  bound.  The  first  record  of  these  attempts  is  a  patent  granted  to  J.  E. 
Heath,  of  Warren,  Ohio,  in  1850.  Watson,  Renwick  and  Watson  secured  patents 
in  1851  and  1853,  but  their  machines  were  very  complicated  and  never  more  than 


THE  STORY  OF  AN  UP-TO-DATE  FARM 


569 


A  MODERN  GRAIN  BINDER  IN  HEAVY  OATS 


THE   WlTHTNGTON   BlNDER  BuiLT  BY  THE    McCoRMICKS  IN    1876 

This  machine  binds  the  grain  with  wire. 


570 


THE  STORY  OF  AN  UP-TO-DATE  FARM 


experiments.     From  that  time  until  1865  many  patents  were  granted,  none  of  which 

may  be  considered  successful. 

In  1865  S.  D.  Locke  of  Janesville  secured  a  patent  which  ultimately  developed 

into  the  Withington  wire  binder  first  put  out  by  McCormick  in  1875. 

The  Withington  machine 
was  an  improvement  on  the 
binding  device  patented  by 
Locke  in  1865.  McCormick 
built  50,000  of  these  machines 
between  1877  and  1885.  It 
was  a  simple  mechanism 
which  consisted  mainly  of 
two  steel  fingers  that  moved 
back  and  forth  and  twisted  a 
wire  band  around  each  sheaf 
of  grain. 

Farmers    did    not    take 
kindly   to   the    wire   binder. 
They  said  that  wire   would 
mix  with  the  straw  and  kill 
THE  DEERING  TWINE  BINDER  OF  1879  their  horses  and  cattle. 

This  is  the  perfected  Marsh  harvester  with  a  perfected 

Appleby  twine  binding  attachment  and  was  first  put  out  by  the     The  Twine  Binder. 
Deering  Company  in  1879.  This   w&&   ^  situatjon 

in  the  harvesting  industry  about  the  time  that  William  Deering  took  an  active 
interest.  He  looked  about  for  a  better  machine.  He  found  John  F.  Appleby,  who, 
in  1878,  had  perfected  a  twine  binder  attachment.  When  Deering  saw  the  strong 
steel  arms  flash  a  cord  around  a  bundle  of  grain,  tie  a  knot,  cut  the  cord  and  fling 


THE  MCCORMICK  TWINE  BINDER  OF  1881  WITH  THE  APPLEBY  BINDING  ATTACHMENT,  WHICH 

USED  TWINE  INSTEAD  OF  WIRE 


THE  STORY  OF  AN  UP-TO-DATE  FARM 


571 


572 


THE  STORY  OF  AN  UP-TO-DATE  FARM 


off  the  sheaf,  he  knew  he  had  what  the  world  needed.  Appleby  began  working  on  his 
invention  in  1858,  but  accomplished  nothing  until  1869  when  he  took  out  his  first 
patent  on  a  "wire  binder."  In  1874  he  began  what  is  known  as  the  Appleby  twine 
binder,  operating  one  in  1875  and  1876  and  several  in  1877.  In  1879  Deering  bought  out 

t Gammon,  joined  forces  with 

Appleby,  moved  the  factory 
from  Piano  to  Chicago  in 
1880,  and  began  putting  out 
twine  binders.  In  1881  Mc- 
Cormick,  also,  and  Champion 
began  building  the.  Appleby 
binder. 

With  the  development 
of  an  attachment  to  bind  with 
twine,  a  new  problem  arose 
—where  to  get  a  cheap  ser- 
viceable twine.  William 
Deering  again  arose  to  the 
occasion.  He  met  Edwin  H. 
Fitler  in  Philadelphia,  one  of 
the  three  twine  makers  in  the 
United  States,  and  after  a 
good  deal  of  persuasion 
induced  him  to  take  an  order 
for  a  single-strand  binder 


THE  PROGRESSIVE  FARMER  NOW  USES  A  MECHANICAL 
MANURE  SPREADER  TO  INCREASE  THE  PRODUCTIVENESS  OF 
His  LAND 


The  modern  spreader  is  built  low  and  equipped  with  a 

rial  wide  1    " 

beyond  the 


special  wide  spread  attachment  which  throws  the  manure  well 
wheels. 


twine.     From  that  time  on, 
all  manufacturers  have  been 


A  GRAIN  DRILL  WITH  DISK  AND  CHAIN  ATTACHMENTS 
This  drill  is  large  enough  to  require  the  strength  of  four  horses  to  pull  it. 


THE  STORY  OF  AN  UP-TO-DATE  FARM 


573 


574  THE  STORY  OF  AN  UP-TO-DATE  FARM 

building^practically  the  same  machine — the  Appleby  binding  attachment  on  the 
Marsh  type  of  harvester  which,  in  turn,  was  founded  on  the  McCormick  cutting 
mechanism.  The  self-binder  of  today  is  of  that  type. 

Other  Machines  Follow. 

The  completion  of  the  reaper  set  the  wheels  of  farm  invention  spinning.  It 
was  the  first  great  battle  successfully  won  and  gave  a  spirit  of  confidence  and  an 
irresistible  spirit  of  victory  to  the  men  who  were  lifting  the  burdens  off  the  bodies 
of  men.  After  the  reaper,  the  mowing  machine  came  naturally.  Following  the 
binder  in  easy  sequences  came  the  corn  binder,  push  binder,  header  and  harvester 
thresher. 

Every  variety  of  haying  machine,  from  side-delivery  rake  and  tedder  to  sweep 
rake  and  loader,  came  eventually  to  make  hay-making  easy.  The  thresher,  ensilage 
cutter,  riding  plow,  disk  harrow,  cream  separator,  manure  spreader  and  seeding 
machines  succeeded  in  making  the  raising  of  the  world's  food  a  profitable  occupation; 
at  the  same  time,  they  made  it  an  easy  one.  Lately,  the  internal  combustion  engine, 
together  with  its  application  in  the  kerosene  tractor,  promises  to  make  the  farmer's 
emancipation  practically  complete.  If  Herbert  Casson  could  say  "The  United 
States  owes  more  to  the  reaper  than  it  does  to  the  factory  or  the  railroad  or  the 
Wall  Street  stock  exchange,"  what  can  be  said  of  these  myriad  machines  that  now 
do  the  food-grower's  work  for  him? 

Where  formerly  nearly  all  the  people  had  to  engage  in  food  raising  and  even 
then  went  to  bed  hungry,  now  nearly  half  the  people  live  away  from  the  farm  and 
there  is  a  great  abundance  of  bread  and  of  food. 


What  Causes  an  Echo? 

An  echo  is  caused  by  the  reflection  of  sound  waves  at  some  moderately  even 
surface,  such  as  the  wall  of  a  building.  The  waves  of  sound  on  meeting  the  surface 
are  turned  back  in  their  course,  according  to  the  same  laws  that  hold  for  reflection 
of  light.  In  order  that  the  echo  may  return  to  the  place  from  which  the  sound 
proceeds,  the  reflection  must  be  direct,  and  not  at  an  angle  to  the  line  of  transmission, 
otherwise  the  echo  may  be  heard  by  others,  but  not  by  the  transmitter  of  the  sound. 
This  may  be  effected  either  by  a  reflecting  surface  at  right  angles  to  the  line  of  trans- 
mission or  by  several  reflecting  surfaces,  which  end  in  bringing  the  sound  back  to  the 
point  of  issue. 

Sound  travels  about  1,125  feet  in  a  second;  consequently,  an  observer  standing 
at  half  that  distance  from  the  reflecting  object  would  hear  the  echo  a  second  later 
than  the  sound.  Such  an  echo  would  repeat  as  many  words  and  syllables  as  could  be 
heard  in  a  second.  As  the  distance  decreases  the  echo  repeats  fewer  syllables  till  it 
becomes  monosyllabic. 

The  most  practiced  ear  cannot  distinguish  in  a  second  more  than  from  nine  to 
twelve  successive  sounds,  so  that  a  distance  of  not  less  than  sixty  feet  is  needed  to 
enable  a  common  ear  to  distinguish  between  the  echo  and  the  original  sounds.  At  a 
near  distance  the  echo  only  clouds  the  original  sounds.  This  often  interferes  with 
the  hearing  in  churches  and  other  large  buildings.  Woods,  rocks  and  mountains 
produce  natural  echoes  in  every 'variety,  for  which  particular  localities  have  become 
famous. 

In  Greek  mythology,  Echo  was  a  nymph  (one  of  the  Oreads)  who  fell  in  love 
with  Narcissus,  and  because  he  did  not  reciprocate  her  affection  she  pined  away 
until  nothing  was  left  but  her  voice. 


The  Story  of  the  Motion-Picture 
Projecting  Machine* 

Few  businesses  have  had  a  more  spectacular  rise  than  the  motion-picture  industry.. 
It  may  be  true  that  there  are  other  industries  of  recent  growth  that  are  more  highly 
capitalized  than  the  motion-picture  business.  I  shall  not  make  any  comparisons 
nor  look  up  statistics,  but  will  present  some  facts  about  an  enterprise  that,  scien- 
tifically, industrially  and  commercially,  is  one  of  the  great  wonders  of  the  world. 

It  is  fair  to  estimate  that  more  than  $375,000,000  is  invested  in  this  business 
in  the  United  States.  It  looks  like  an  exaggeration  or  as  if  the  typesetter  had  slipped 
in  several  extra  ciphers  by  mistake,  does  it  not?  Nevertheless,  the  estimate  is  said 
to  be  extremely  conservative.  In  the  first  place,  it  concerns  every  branch  of  the 
business,  of  which  there  are  five.  Taken  in  their  natural  order  there  are:  1.  The 
manufacture  of  motion-picture  cameras.  2.  The  manufacture  of  films.  3.  The 
taking  of  the  pictures.  4.  The  manufacture  of  the  projecting  machines.  5.  The 
exhibition  of  the  pictures. 

The  projecting  machine  is  the  subject  of  this  story.  One  sees  very  little  about 
it  in  the  newspapers  and  popular  magazines,  in  spite  of  the  fact  that  it  is  the  key- 
stone, so  to  speak,  of  the  motion-picture  industry.  Of  the  entire  business,  in  all  its 
ramifications,  this  machine  is  the  most  important  not  only  from  a  technical  stand- 
point, but  as  regards  both  the  pleasure  and  safety  of  the  public.  Here,  again,  a  great 
deal  of  money  is  invested.  Its  manufacture  involves  costly  and  highly  specialized 
machinery,  the  most  intelligent  of  mechanics  and  the  constant  thought  and  endeavor 
of  the  men  at  the  head  of  the  business. 

The  advancement  in  the  manufacture  of  motion-picture  projecting  machines 
from  the  start  has  been  along  two  avenues — to  secure  better  projection,  a  sharper, 
clearer  and  steadier  picture,  and  to  eliminate  the  danger  of  fire  resultant  from  the 
ignition  of  combustible  film.  Experts  have  watched  and  studied  the  picture  machine 
through  all  its  stages  of  development.  For  seventeen  years  they  have  slowly  improved 
the  machine  and  brought  it  to  its  present  high  state  of  mechanical  perfection.  The 
development  of  the  fireproof  magazine,  the  automatic  fire-shutter,  the  loop-setter, 
flame  shields  and  the  famous  intermittent  movement  have  all  been  vital  factors  hi 
the  elimination  of  fire  and  also  in  securing  perfect  projection.  The  oldest  invention 
was  patented  by  W.  E.  Lincoln  on  April  23,  1867.  The  contrivance  was  a  mere 
toy,  employing  no  light  and  being  merely  a  little  machine  which,  when  revolved, 
gave  figures,  printed  in  different  positions,  the  semblance  of  motion.  The  second 
oldest  was  of  an  " optical  instrument"  patented  by  O.  B.  Brown  on  August  10,  1869. 
This  was  really  the  first  American  motion-picture  projection  machine.  There  was 
a  sort  of  disk  or  moving-shutter  movement  which,  on  revolving,  gave  projected  objects 
the  appearance  of  animation.  Of  course,  there  were  no  films  in  those  days  and  the 
inventor  had  used  translucent  glass  to  obtain  the  results.  Yet  here  was  the  germ  of 
our  native  modern  machine. 

A  well-known  moving-picture  projecting  machine  manufacturer  tells  the  following 
story:  "A  bet  was  made  in  1871  by  the  late  Senator  Leland  Stanford,  of  California, 
that  a  running  horse  at  no  time  had  all  four  feet  off  the  ground.  Edward  Muybridge, 

*  Illustrations  by  courtesy  of  the  Nicholas  Power  Co. 

(575) 


576       STORY  OF  THE  MOTION-PICTURE  MACHINE 


THE  LATEST  MOTION-PICTURE  PROJECTING  MACHINE 


STORY  OF  THE  MOTION-PICTURE  MACHINE       577 


THE  CONSTRUCTION  OF  THE  LAMPHOUSE 
AFFORDS  EASY  ACCESS 


an  Englishman,  by  way  of  experiment,  placed  numerous  cameras  at  regular  intervals 

about  the  track,  which,  by  electrical  contact,  were  snapped  by  the  horse  in  passing. 

It  proved  that  the  horse  always  had,  when  running,  one  foot  on  the  ground.    Although 

this    was    not    the    first    record    of    motion 

pictures,    it    served    to    demonstrate     their 

practicability. 

"  Development   had    dragged  until   the 

Muybridge  experiment.     In  1880  Muybridge 

produced,  in  San  Francisco,  the  'Zoopraxi- 

scope/  which   projected    pictures    (on   glass 

positives)    on   a    screen.     Later    Muybridge 

conferred  with  Edison  regarding  a  combina- 
tion of  his  machine  with   the   phonograph, 

then  in  its  infancy;  about  1883  he  went  abroad 

and  held  frequent  conferences  with  M.  Marey 

of  the  Institute  of  France 

11  Marey    first    utilized'    the    continuous 

film,   though  it  was   George   Eastman  who 

brought  it  to  its  present  state  of  high  perfec- 
tion.    A  great  deal  of  the  tremendous  present 

popularity  of  motion  pictures  :s  due  to  the 

invention  of  the  translucent  film.     The  early 

kodak   film   became  the  great  factor  in  the 

cinematograph  manufacture. 

"In  1893  Lumiere  produced  the  l Cine- 
matograph/   the   first    machine    to    project 

from  a  film.     Edison  in  1896  produced  his 

'  Vitascope.'     These  machines  became  the  models  of  the  greatly  improved  article 

of  today. 

"The  first  real  machine  was  brought  to  America  in  1894.     At  least,  that  is  as 

near  as  I  can  recollect  the  date.  It  was  a 
Lumiere  cinematograph  and  was  exhibited  at 
the  Union  Square  Theater,  New  York  City. 
The  French  manufacturing  firm  instructed 
J.  B.  Cole  &  Co.  to  furnish  an  operator.  The 
Cole  Company  was  interested  in  the  sale  of 
lanterns  and  slides  and  the  foreign  firm 
naturally  turned  to  them  for  assistance. 

"They  furnished  an  operator,  Edward 
Hadley.  Although  he  had  never  seen  a 
motion-picture  machine,  Hadley  was  a  man 
who  had  been  in  their  employ  and  was 
naturally  familiar  with  lanterns  and  electric- 
ity. To  the  best  of  my  belief,  Hadley  was 
the  first  motion-picture  operator  in  America. 
He  afterwards  became  the  operator  for  Lyman 
H.  Howe,  the  well-known  pioneer  traveling 
motion-picture  exhibitor,  and  later  became 
an  exhibitor  himself. 

"The  films   then   had    one    perforation 

on  either  side  of  each  picture.     That  was  the   French  method.     The   American 

method    of    four    perforations    on    either    side    of    each    picture,    formulated    by 

Thomas  A.  Edison,  was  taken  up  later.     The  Edison  perforation  method  became 


I 


QHL 


THE  NEW  ARC  LAMP 


37 


578        STORY  OF  THE  MOTION-PICTURE   MACHINE 

the  standard  in  America  and  finally  throughout  the  world.      We   find  no  more 
single-holed  films." 

_  Here,  for  the  benefit  of  the  uninitiated,  a  little  description  of  the  film  and  the 
projecting  head  of  a  machine  is  necessary.  A  motion-picture  film  is  a  thin  ribbon 
of  transparent  pyroxylin  plastic  or  nitrocellulose,  which  is  highly  inflammable. 
The  photographs  on  the  film,  one  by  three-fourths  of  an  inch  in  size,  leave  a  margin 
of  five  thirty-seconds  of  an  inch  on  each  side.  In  the  margins  are  the  perforations 
necessary  to  feed  the  film  through  the  machine  head.  There  are  sixteen  pictures 
to  the  foot. 

The  mechanism  of  the  machine  head  moves  the  film  over  an  aperture,  so  that 
the  rays  of  light  from  the  lamp  will  project  an  enlargement  of  the  film  picture  upon 
the  screen.  The  reels  upon  which  the  film  is  wound  are  mounted  above  and  below — 
the  upper  is  the  feed  reel  and  the  lower  is  the  take-up  reel.  Sprocket  wheels  control 
the  action  of  the  film.  The  top  feed  sprocket  pulls  the  film  from  the  upper  feed 
reel,  the  middle  intermittent  sprocket  (below  the  aperture)  turns  in  a  way  to  give 


NARROW  SHUTTER  WINGS  AFFORD  BRIGHTER  ILLUMINATION  ON  THE  SCREEN 

each  picture  a  certain  time  of  stop  over  the  projection  aperture,  and  the  bottom 
take-up  sprocket  assists  in  winding  the  film  on  the  take-up  reel. 

"The  early  films  were  in  very  short  lengths,"  continued  the  manufacturer. 
"The  average  was  from  twenty  to  sever ty-five  feet.  A  hundred-foot  film  was  con- 
sidered extra  long.  They  were  mostly  comic  and  not  educational.  The  vast  possi- 
bilities of  the  film  had  not  yet  dawned  upon  the  pioneers.  They  aimed  only  to  get 
a  laugh  with  a  crude  comic  picture. 

"But  those  with  more  foresight  realized  that  the  film  had  come  to  stay.  So 
the  advancement  began.  Today  the  public  is  always  looking  toward  something 
better.  It  has  been  educated  up  to  an  exceedingly  high  standard.  The  average 
spectator  today  can  see  a  defect  in  an  exhibited  film  as  quickly  as  an  expert. 

"Machines  in  the  early  days  were  very  crude,  permittuig  only  short  films,  which 
were  an  endless  belt.  They  were  threaded  over  spools  contained  in  a  box  at  the  rear 
end  of  the  lamphouse,  passing  over  the  lamphouse  to  the  head  of  the  machine ;  thence 
down  through  the  head,  past  the  projection  aperture  and  back  to  the  spools.  This 
exposed  the  film  at  all  tunes,  which  was  extremely  dangerous.  About  1900,  longer 
films  came  into  use,  which  necessitated  a  change  in  handling.  At  the  machine 


STORY  OF  THE  MOTION-PICTURE  MACHINE       579 

head,  the  film  was  piled  on  the  floor.  This  being  dangerous  and  destructive,  a 
receptacle  was  devised  and  fastened  to  the  frame  below  the  reel,  into  which  the  film 
passed.  This  soon  gave  way  to  a  reel  known  as  the  take-up  reel,  which  received 
the  film  after  it  had  passed  from  the  upper  reel  through  the  head  and  before  the 
aperture,  where  it  was  projected  on  the  screen. 

"  These  are  a  few  steps  in  the  march  towards  improvement.  My  first  machine 
was  called  the  'Peerlesscope.'  I  kept  continually  improving  it,  and  in  1902  changed 
the  name  to  '  Cameragraph ; '  my  latest  machine,  No.  6B,  possesses  every  known 
device  for  safety — fire-shutters,  which  automatically  cut  off  the  film  from  the  rays 
of  the  lamp  while  motionless;  film-shields,  which  enclose  and  protect  the  film;  fire- 
valves,  which  prevent  entrance  of  flame  into  magazines;  the  loop-setter,  which  prevents 
breakage  of  the  film  while  in  motion,  etc." 

Concerning  projection,  this  manufacturer  said:  "Pictures  cannot  succeed  with- 
out perfect  projection,  resulting  in  absolutely  clear,  flickerless  pictures.  The  longer 
the  period  of  rest  of  each  picture  on  the  screen,  the  better  the  detail  and  the  clearer 
the  picture.  This  I  accomplished  by  means  of  an  intermittent  movement. 

"You  know  that  in  projecting  pictures  the  motion  in  the  film  is  not  continuous 
in  front  of  the  aperture  of  the  machine  head,  each  picture  pausing  long  enough  for 
proper  projection  on  the  screen.  Through  this  intermittent  movement  I  obtain  a 
longer  period  of  rest  for  each  picture,  which  accomplishes  perfect*  projection  of 
pictures  without  flicker. 

"A  very  annoying  feature  until  recently  has  been  the  losing  of  the  lower  film 
loop,  due  to  poor  patching  of  the  film,  tearing  of  the  perforations  in  the  films,  etc., 
causing  the  film  to  jump  the  lower  sprocket,  with  the  probable  tearing  and  re-adjust- 
ment of  the  film.  This  I  overcame  with  my  loop-setter  invention.  To  explain 
briefly — 

"As  the  full  movement  at  the  upper  and  lower  reel  is  continuous,  while  at  the 
aperture  it  is  intermittent,  a  loop  is  necessary  as  a  feeder  for  the  take-up  or  the  lower 
sprocket.  If  this  loop  is  lost,  the  film  becomes  taut,  the  machine  stops  and  -the  film 
may  break.  The  loop-setter  instantly  readjusts  this  loop  automatically,  keeping 
it  always  in  force." 

The  taking  of  pictures  is,  of  course,  one  of  the  interesting  phases  of  the  business 
from  a  popular  standpoint.  Here  we  find  not  only  large  sums  invested  but  the  action, 
setting,  plots — in  fact,  the  entire  order  of  pulsating  life  and  convincing  reality  that 
give  to  motion  pictures  their  remarkable  hold  upon  the  public.  In  vying  with  each 
other  to  make  the  most  attractive  films  possible,  the  concerns  in  this  end  of  the 
industry  engage  the  most  talented  players,  who  are  transported  on  long  journeys 
so  that  the  settings  may  be  realistically  satisfactory;  while  often  the  company 
includes  not  only  two-footed  actors,  but  horses,  one  or  two  clever  dogs  and  some- 
times a  trained  bear  and  other  animals,  besides  all  of  which  there  is  usually  an  array 
of  "properties"  that  far  exceeds  in  quantity  and  variety  the  list  of  such  appurte- 
nances carried  by  the  average  stock  theatrical  company  or  theatei  of  the  ordinary  kind. 

Then,  too,  there  is  the  presentation  of  the  pictures,  where  we  find  another  vast 
outlay  of  money  in  land,  buildings  and  equipment.  And,  remember,  the  matter  of 
taking  and  presenting  the  pictures  must  not  be  considered  only  from  the  amusement 
standpoint.  Motion  pictures  are  being  employed  more  and  more  every  day  for 
educational  and  industrial  purposes. 


The  Story  of  Leather* 

We  all  know  that  leather  is  the  skins  of  animals,  dressed  and  prepared  for  our  use 
by  tanning,  or  some  other  process,  which  preserves  them  from  rotting  and  renders 
them  pliable  and  tough. 

The  larger  and  heavier  skins,  such  as  those  of  buffaloes,  bulls,  oxen,  horses  and 
cows,  are  called  " hides;"  while  those  of  the  smaller  animals,  such  a,s  calves,  sheep, 
pigs  and  goats,  are  called  "skins." 

The  tanning  of  raw  hides  taken  from  animals  is  an  ancient  trade.     The  bark  of 


SCOURING 

trees  made  into  a  liquor  has  been  used  for  centuries  in  treating  practically  all  kinds  of 
hides. 

The  oak,  fir,  hemlock  and  sumach  are  the  most  familiar  of  the  many  trees  from 
which  "tannin"  is  obtained  for  this  purpose. 

The  cow  hide  is  used  practically  altogether  for  sole  leather  and  is  bark  tanned 
in  the  majority  of  cases.  After  the  hide  is  taken  from  the  animal  it  is  either  dry  cured, 
or  else  salted  green,  and  packed  for  shipment  or  storage. 

The  first  process  of  preparing  sole  leather  is  to  cut  these  hides  in  half  or  sides. 
The  sides  are  then  run  through  lime  vats  for  the  purpose  of  loosening  the  hair.  They 
are  then  run  through  the  unhairing  machine,  in  which  large  rollers  remove  the  hair. 

From  the  unhairing  machine  the  hides  pass  to  a  fleshing  machine,  which  cuts 
away  all  the  flesh  or  fat  on  the  hide.  They  are  then  trimmed  and  scraped  by  hand, 
after  which  the  real  tanning  process  begins. 

The  old  method  of  tanning  leather  was  in  large  vats,  which  were  filled  alternately 
with  tan  bark  and  hides,  then  filled  with  water  and  allowed  to  soak  for  a  period  of 
eight  to  nine  months  before  the  tanning  process  was  complete.  The  extract  of  bark 
in  liquor  form  is  used  today  by  all  large  tanneries. 


*  Illustrations  by  courtesy  of  Endicott,  Johnson  &  Co. 


(580) 


THE  STORY  OF  LEATHER 


581 


After  the  hides  have  been  all  prepared  for  tanning  they  are  hung  on  rockers  in 
the  tanning  vats,  where  they  are  kept  in  motion  both  day  and  night  so  that  all  parts 


TANNING  VATS 

pf  every  hide  are  equally  tanned.  They  are  changed  from  time  to  time  from  weaker 
into  stronger  liquor  until  the  tanning  process  is  complete. 

All  sole  leather  is  filled  more  or  less  to  make  it  wear  the  better. 

The  drying  process  comes  next.  The  hides  are  all  hung  in  a  dry  loft,  where 
artificial  heat  of  different  temperatures  is  used  until  they  are  thoroughly  dry.  The 


ROLLERS 

drying  of  the  hide  is  as  important  as  the  tanning.  Hides  that  are  dried  too  quickly 
become  brittle,  so  that  great  care  must  be  taken  in  this  drying  process.  Even  the 
weather  conditions  play  an  important  part 


'582 


THE  STORY  OF  LEATHER 


After  the  hides  are  thoroughly  dried  they  are  then  oiled  and  ironed  by  laree 
rollers  having  several  hundred  pounds  pressure.  This  gives  the  grain  side  o  the 
leather  a  finished  appearance  and  also  serves  to  press  the  leather  together  compactly 


RUBBING 

Before  this  leather  can  be  cut  into  sole  leather  it  has  to  be  again  dried  and  prop- 
erly edged  to  secure  the  best  results. 

Bark-tanned  leather  that  is  used  for  upper  stock  in  shoes  is  tanned  practically 


BOARDING  ROOM 


the  same  way  as  the  bark  sole  leather,  except  lighter  hides  are  used  and  the  finishing 
processes  are  of  a  nature  to  make  it  softer  and  smoother. 

The  above  tannage  is  what  is  called  vegetable  tannage.     There  is  also  a  tannage 
made  from  minerals  that  is  called  chrome.    This  is  used  mostly  in  tanning  soft,  glovey 


THE  STORY  OF  LEATHER" 


583 


upper  leather,  which  when  finished  makes  a  very  tough  yet  soft  and  pliable  leather  for 
footwear. 

Ninety  to  one  hundred  days  are  required  to  tan  bark  leathers,  while  the  chrome 
tannage  is  very  quick  and  on  the  average  requires  only  about  three  weeks. 

The  brilliant  smooth  surface  of  patent,  enameled,  lacquered,  varnished  or 
japanned  leather  is  due  to  the  mode  of  finishing  by  stretching  the  tanned  hides  on 
wooden  frames  and  applying  successive  coats  of  varnish,  each  coat  being  dried  and 
rubbed  smooth  with  pumice  stone.  There  is  also  a  process  called  " tawing,"  which 
is  employed  chiefly  in  the  preparation  of  the  skins  of  sheep,  lambs,  goats  and  kids. 


MEASURING 

In  this  process  the  skins  are  steeped  in  a  bath  of  alum,  salt  and  other  substances,  and 
they  are  also  sometimes  soaked  in  fish-oil.  The  more  delicate  leathers  are  treated  in 
this  manner,  those  especially  which  are  used  for  wash-leathers,  kid  gloves,  etc. 

In  currying  leather  for  shoes  the  leather  is  first  soaked  in  water  until  it  is  thor- 
oughly wet ;  then  the  flesh  side  is  shaved  to  a  proper  surface  with  a  knife  of  peculiar 
construction,  rectangular  in  form  with  two  handles  and  a  double  edge.  The  leather 
is  then  thrown  into  the  water  again,  scoured  upon  a  stone  till  the  white  substance 
called  "bloom"  is  forced  out,  then  rubbed  with  a  greasy  substance  and  hung  up  to 
dry.  When  thoroughly  dry  it  is  grained  with  a  toothed  instrument  on  the  flesh  side 
and  bruised  on  the  grain  or  hair  side  for  the  purpose  of  softening  the  leather.  A  further 
process  of  paring  and  graining  makes  it  ready  for  waxing  or  coloring,  in  which  oil 
and  lampblack  are  used  on  the  flesh  side.  It  is  then  sized,  dried  and  tallowed.  In 
the  process  the  leather  is  made  smooth,  lustrous,  supple  and  waterproof. 


What  is  a  "  Glass  Snake  »? 

"Glass  snake"  is  the  name  which  has  been  given  to  a  lizard  resembling  a  serpent 
in  form  and  reaching  a  length  of  three  feet. 

The  joints  of  the  tail  are  not  connected  by  caudal  muscles,  hence  it  is  extremely 
brittle,  and  one  or  more  of  the  joints  break  off  when  the  animal  is  even  slightly 
irritated. 


The  Story  in  Diamond -Cutting* 

Diamonds  were  known  and  worn  as  jewels  (in  the  rough)  in  India  5,000  years 
ago  and  used  as  cutters  and  gravers  3,000  years  ago.  India  was  the  source  of  supply 
until  diamonds  were  discovered  in  Brazil  about  the  year  1700,  when  Brazil  became 
the  largest  producer  and  remained  so  until  diamonds  were  found  in  South  Africa 
about  1869.  The  African  mines  now  produce  four-fifths  of  the  diamond  supply. 
Previous  to  the  discoveries  in  Africa,  diamonds  were  known  to  originally  come  only 
from  high  places  in  the  mountains,  because  the  diamond  deposits  were  found  in 
India  and  Brazil,  on  high  plateaus,  on  the  sides  of  mountains,  in  the  beds  of  mountain 
streams,  and  in  the  plains  below^  where  mountain  torrents  had  rolled  them. 

In  Africa,  for  the  first  time,  the  true  original  home  of  the  diamond  was  found 
at  high  levels  in  the  mountains,  in  enormous  fissures,  open  chasms,  chimneys  or  pipes, 
extending  to  great  and  unknown  depths.  Into  these  immense  chimneys,  nature 
forced  from  subterranean  sources,  slow  rivers  of  a  peculiar  blue  clay,  a  diamondiferous 
earth  termed  ''serpentine  breccia"  or  "volcanic  tuf "  and  now  known  by  the  latter- 
day  name  of  "Kimberlite."  As  this  soft  mixture  oozed  into  the  "chimneys"  or 
"pipes"  from  the  bottom,  it  was  gradually  forced  upwards,  filling  the  whole  chasm 
from  wall  to  wall  and  to  the  top,  where  its  progress  ended  by  hardening  in  a  small 
mound  ten  to  twelve  feet  higher  than  the  surrounding  surface. 

In  this  blue  clay  or  Kimberlite  in  these  chimneys,  is  found  nature's  most 
wonderful  creation,  the  diamond  crystallized  from  pure  carbon,  in  intense  heat, 
and  under  titanic  pressure. 

The  greatest  mines  of  Africa  are  the  Jagersfontein,  Wesselton,  Premier  and 
Robert  Victor.  The  Kimberlite  of  the  Jagersfontein  mine  is  free  from  pyrites,  and 
to  that  is  attributed  the  remarkable  brilliancy  and  purity  of  color  for  which  the 
diamonds  of  this  mine  are  celebrated.  Their  color  includes  the  blue,  and  they  com- 
mand the  highest  prices  of  any  diamonds. 

The  Wesselton  mine  crystals  are  noted  for  their  octahedra  and  purity.  The 
color  and  brilliancy  are  so  superior  that  nearly  all  fine  white  "Rivers"  are  rated  as 
Wesseltons.  The  Robert  Victor  yields  a  big  average  of  fine  white  stones,  and  many 
of  the  crystals  are  very  perfect  and  beautiful.  The  Dutoitspan  diamonds  mostly 
show  color,  but  many  are  "fancy"  and  demand  a  high  price.  The  Bulfontein  crystals 
are  usually  small  white  octahedras  of  very  good  color,  but  many  are  flawed.  The 
De  Beers  stones  are  good  white,  some  color,  some  broken  crystals  and  smoky  stones. 
The  Kimberly  diamonds  are  much  the  same  as  those  from  the  De  Beers  mine.  The 
Premier  is  the  largest  diamond  mine  in  the  world.  Of  its  diamonds  some  have  an 
oily  lustre  and  are  quite  blue — many  are  of  the  finest  quality  and  color.  This  mine 
also  produces  a  large  number  of  "false  color"  stones  which  change  color  in  different 
lights.  The  Voorspoed  and  the  Koffyfontein  produce  fair  white  and  some  colored 
diamonds. 

Diamonds  in  small  quantities  are  also  found  in  Borneo,  British  and  Dutch 
Guiana,  Australia,  Sumatra,  China  and  the  United  States. 

One  of  the  largest  diamonds  known  (weight  367  carats)  was  found  in  Borneo 
about  a  century  ago,  and  belongs  to  the  Rajah  of  Mat  tan.  One  of  the  most  cele- 
brated is  the  Koh-i-noor  (Mountain  of  Light),  belonging  to  the  British  crown.  It 
weighed  originally  nearly  800  carats,  but  by  subsequent  recuttings  has  been  reduced 

*  Courtesy  of  Mr.  Charles  L.  Trout. 

(684) 


THE  STORY  IN  DIAMOND-CUTTING 


585 


to  103%  carats.  The  Orloff  diamond,  belonging  to  the  Emperor  of  Russia,  weighs 
195  carats;  the  Pitt  diamond,  among  the  French  crown  jewels,  136J4  The  former, 
which  came  from  India,  has  been  thought  to  have  originally  formed  part  of  the 
Koh-i-noor  stone.  The  largest  Brazilian  diamond  weighed  254  J/2  carats  and  was 
cut  to  a  brilliant  of  125.  Some  of  the  South  African  diamonds  are  also  very  large, 
one  being  found  in  1893  weighing  971  carats,  or  nearly  half  a  pound.  More  recently 
a  much  larger  one  has  been  found,  weighing  3,034  carats.  This  has  been  cut  into 
eleven  pieces,  the  largest,  a  drop  brilliant,  weighing  516J/2  carats.  This,  called  the 
Star  of  South  Africa,  has  been  placed  in  King  George's  scepter,  and  another,  of 
309^  carats,  in  his  crown. 

A  rough  diamond  is  a  hard-looking,  luminous  object,  somewhat  like  a  piece  of 
alum,  with  a  dull  skin,  called  the  "nyf,"  over  a  brilliant  body.  The  ancients  wore 
their  diamonds  uncut  because  they 
could  not  find  a  substance  that 
would  grind  or  cut  them.  About 
1,500  years  ago,  however,  it  was 
found  that  by  rubbing  or  grinding 
one  diamond  against  another  the 
outer  skin  could  be  removed.  At 
Bruges,  in  1450,  diamonds  were 


OLD  SQUARE  CUT  DIAMONDS 


ENGLISH  SQUARE  CUT  DIAMONDS 


first  polished  with  diamond  dust. 
In  Holland,  in  1700,  diamonds 
were  first  cut  with  an  idea  of 
bringing  out  real  beauty  and  bril- 
liance by  cutting  them  square  with 
a  large  flat  table  and  some  small 
facets,  ten  in  all,  sloping  to  the 

edge  of  the  square.  From  this  beginning  cutters  gradually  added  additional  facets  to 
increase  the  brilliancy  until  there  were  thirty-four  in  all.  Then  came  the  English 
round-cut  brilliants  with  fifty-eight  facets,  but  the  diamond  was  left  thick  and 
lumpy,  until  about  seventy-five  years  ago,  when  an  American  cutter,  Henry  D. 
Morse,  of  Boston,  developed  the  cutting  of  diamonds  to  its  present  perfection  by 
fearlessly  sacrificing  weight  to  get  proportion.  This  greatly  increased  the  price  of 
diamonds,  but  enhanced  their  brilliancy. 

All  cutters  have  been  compelled  to  follow  this  method,  and  the  perfectly  cut 
brilliant  of  today  has  a  depth  from  table  to  culet  of  six-tenths  of  the  diameter,  of 
which  one-third  is  above  the  girdle  and  two-thirds  below.  In  this  form  the  diamond 
resembles  two  cones  united  at  their  bases,  the  upper  one  cut  off  a  short  distance  from 
its  base,  the  lower  one  having  its  extreme  point  cut  off.  It  has  fifty-eight  facets,  of 
which  thirty-three,  including  the  table,  are  above  the  girdle  and  twenty-five,  including 
the  culet,  below  the  girdle.  Stones  which  are  not  scientifically  cut  in  this  true  pro- 
portion, if  too  deep,  are  called  "lumpy,"  if  too  shallow  they  are  called  "fish  eyes." 
A  slightly  spread  stone  is  desirable,  provided  it  has  not  lost  brilliancy,  and  so  become 
a  "fish  eye."  Looking  larger  than  its  weight  indicates,  it  offers  a  larger  appearing 
diamond  for  the  price  of  a  smaller  perfectly  cut  stone.  Most  cutters  remove  as  little 
of  the  rough  stone  as  possible  in  cutting  so  as  to  retain  weight  (they  sell  by  weight). 
This  often  results  in  the  finished  diamond  being  too  thick  at  the  girdle,  making  a 
lumpy  stone.  Many  people  think  deep,  lumpy  stones  are  most  desirable.  This  is 
not  true,  as  they  are  imperfectly  cut. 

In  preparing  to  cut  a  diamond  the  rough  crystal  is  studied  until  the  grain  is 
found.  Along  the  grain  another  sharp-pointed  diamond  is  ground  until  there  is  a 
V-shape  incision  or  nick.  The  blunt  end  of  a  flat  piece  of  steel  is  placed  in  this  nick 
and  a  smart  blow  of  a  hammer  divides  the  crystal  evenly  and  perfectly.  After  this 


586 


THE   STORY   IN  DIAMOND-CUTTING 


"cleavage"  has  removed  the  unnecessary  portions,  or  they  have  been  sawed  off  by 
the  use  of  rapidly-revolving  thin  wheels  charged  with  diamond  dust,  the  diamond 
is  set  in  a  turning  wheel  and  ground  with  another  diamond  until  it  takes  the  shape 
in  which  we  know  it. 

The  fifty-eight  facets  are  cut  and  polished  one  at  a  time  on  a  rapidly-revolving 
wheel  charged  with  diamond  dust  and  oil.  It  takes  from  two  and  one-half  to  four 
days  to  properly  cut  a  stone.  Knife-edge  girdle  diamonds  are  impractical  owing 
to  the  liability  of  chipping  the  thin  edge  in  setting  or  by  blows  while  being  worn. 


TABLE 


CROWN 


PAVILION 


GIRDLE 


CULET 


LUMPY- 
DIAMOND 


FISHEYE 
DIAMOND 


FACET 


CHAMBER 


CULET 


Polishing  the  rough  edge  of  the  girdle  is  rarely  done  and  then  usually  to  conceal  a 
girdle  which  is  too  thick  or  lumpy.  The  principal  diamond  cutting  centers  are 
Amsterdam,  Antwerp  and  New  York. 

Inherent  flaws  can  be  perfectly  understood  by  imagining  a  pond  of  water  frozen 
solidly  to  its  center.  At  the  shore,  where  the  ice  has  been  partly  forced  out  along 
the  banks,  it  will  be  full  of  grass,  leaves,  pebbles  and  sticks,  and  presents  a  broken 
and  frosted  appearance.  Further  out  there  are  only  traces  of  such  debris,  some 
bubbles,  spots,  etc.  Out  at  the  center  is  clear,  transparent,  unbroken,  unflawed^ 


MOSTLY  FLAWS 
SURROUNDED 
BY   DIAMOND 


CULET    OUT 
OF   CENTER 


CARBON  SPOT 
FAVORABLY 
SITUATED 


CARBON  SPOT 

BADLY 
SITUATED 


purest  blue-white  ice,  such  as  you  delight  to  see  in  your  glass  on  a  hot  day.  So  is 
it  with  diamonds;  some  (like  the  ice  along  the  shore)  are  full  of  cracks,  carbon 
specks,  bubbles,  clouds,  splits  and  cavities;  some  have  all  of  these;  some  only  a  few; 
others  only  one,  and  some  are  without  flaws. 

Of  all  the  imperfections  (not  considering  glaring  cracks  or  nicks),  carbon  spots 
are  the  most  discernible.  They  range  from  mere  specks  scarcely  visible  with  a  powerful 
magnifying  glass,  to  large  black  spots  or  clusters  of  large  or  small  black  specks  some- 
tunes  quite  plain  to  the  naked  eye.  These  are  carbon  which  failed  to  crystallize 
with  the  rest  of  the  diamond,  or  intrusions  of  titanic  iron.  The  blackest  and  often 
most  numerous  carbon  specks  occur  in  the  finest  white  and  blue-white  stones. 
"Capes"  and  other  yellow  diamonds  are  usually  perfect,  something  in  the  color 
of  these  stones  seemingly  being  of  a  nature  which  helps  clear  and  perfect  crystalli- 
zation. Blue-white  stones  of  exceptionally  fine  color  are  often  massed  full  of  shaggy 
or  jet-black  carbon  spots. 

White  specks  and  bubbles  are  common  flaws,  which  vary  in  size  and  which  may 
be  best  illustrated  by  looking  at  a  pane  of  glass  in  your  window.  There  you  will 


THE   STORY  IN  DIAMOND-CUTTING 


587 


find  small  knots,  white  bubbles  and  whitish  specks.  These  seldom  injure  the  bril- 
liancy, as  they  are  often  a  glittering  silver  color,  more  brilliant  than  the  diamond. 

Clouds  are  dark  flat  patches  in  the  grain,  of  a  brownish  color,  and  appear  as  a 
sprinkling  of  dust  in  a  small  patch  in  the  interior.  This  seldom  injures  brilliancy. 

Glessen  or  glasses  are  flat  sectional  streaks  having  an  icy  appearance.  When 
large  or  abundant  they  disturb  or  cut  off  the  proper  reflection  of  the  interior  light 
rays,  causing  an  appearance  known  as  " shivery."  When  clouds  or  glessen  occur 
at  the  surface  of  a  diamond  they  appear  as  cracks,  and  if  at  or  near  the  girdle  are 


WH1TESPECKS 
BUBBLES 


CLOUDS 


GLESSEN 


dangerous,  as  the  stone  is  liable  to  split  or  crack  there  when  being  mounted  or  by 
any  hard  blow,  which  would  result  in  the  loss  of  a  sliver  or  wedged-shaped  piece  out 
of  the  edge. 

Surface  flaws  consist  of  nicks  or  cavities  in  the  face  of  the  stone  either  above  or 
below  the  girdle.  The  brilliancy  of  the  diamond  hides  these  flaws  when  the  diamond 
is  clean,  but  when  clouded  with  soap  and  dust  these  cavities  fill  up  and  show  plainly. 


1 


PERFECT  CUT  BUT 
BADLY  FLAWED 


NICKS 

SPLINTERS 

CRACK 


BARGAIN 
DIAMOND 


CAVITY 


Diamonds  are  so  brilliant,  the  radiance  from  the  facets  so  bewildering  to  the 
eye,  that  the  flaws  cannot  be  seen  by  the  human  eye  unless  the  imperfection  is  pro- 
nounced and  at  the  top  surface  of  the  diamond.  Each  facet  of  a  diamond  (by  reason 
of  the  method  of  cutting)  is  a  window  looking  down  a  clearly  defined  walled  chamber, 
like  a  hall-way  to  the  culet.  With  a  one-inch  loup  or  magnifying  glass  such  as  watch- 
makers and  diamond  dealers  use,  it  is  possible  to  clearly  look  down  through  each 
facet  and  its  hall-way  to  the  culet,  and  observe  throughout  each  chamber  the  very 
slightest  imperfection  if  one  exists,  thus  thoroughly  examining  and  exploring  the 
entire  diamond. 

Diamond  brilliancy  is  of  two  kinds:  "  surf  ace  brilliancy"  and  "internal  bril- 
liancy." Light  falling  vertically  on  a  diamond  is  reflected  back  in  straight,  unbroken 
rays.  This  constitutes  ''surface  brilliancy,"  Light  falling  in  a  slanting  direction 


588 


THE  STORY  IN  DIAMOND-CUTTING 


is  partly  reflected  and  partly  enters  the  stone;  that  part  which  enters  is  refracted 
or  bent  and  causes  the  "  internal  brilliancy." 

In  a  perfectly  cut  diamond,  the  facets  are  so  carefully  arranged  that  entering 
rays  of  light  jump  from  waH  to  wall  of  this  transparent  enclosure  and  emerge  again 
at  the  very  point  of  entry  Cleverly  arranged  mirrors  sending  a  ray  of  light  from 
one  to  all  the  others  and  back  again  to  the  first  will  produce  the  same  effect.  Lights 
entering  a  diamond  are  reflected,  refracted  and  dispersed.  The  dispersion  of  a  ray 
of  white  light  separates  it  into  its  component  color  rays.  These  are  the  spectrum 

colors  often  seen  radiating  from  a  diamond. 
Placing  a  diamond  in  the  sun's  rays  and  holding 
a  sheet  of  white  paper  at  the  proper  angle  to 
catch  the  reflections  from  the  stone  clearly  shows 
these  colors. 

Brilliancy  is  often  said  to  be  the  most 
important  quality  of  a  diamond,  but  that  is  not 
true.  Yellow  diamonds  are  more  flashingly  bril- 
liant  than  white  stones  that  cost  much  more. 
In  each  color  grade,  greater  brilliance  deter- 

mines higher  value  over  stones  of  the  same  color  grade  with  less  brilliancy.  The 
diamond  is  the  hardest  known  substance  in  the  world,  cutting  and  grinding  all  other 
known  hard  things,  but  itself  only  cut  and  ground  by  its  mates. 

Because  of  their  hardness,  diamonds  worn  by  many  previous  generations  remain 
as  brilliant  as  they  were  in  the  beginning  and  they  will  continue  so  to  the  end  of  time. 
No  other  thing  can  scratch  or  mar  the  polished  facets  and  sharp  corners  of  the 
diamond.  It  is  the  hardest  of  all  known  things.  While  all  diamonds  are  of  practically 
the  same  hardness,  this  is  not,  however,  absolutely  true,  as  stones  from  wet  diggings 
or  rivers  are  slightly  harder  than  those  from  dry  diggings.  All  diamonds  are  infusible 
and  unaffected  by  acids  or  alkali.  The  heat  of  a  burning  building  will  not  affect 
them,  they  can  be  raked  from  the  ashes  uninjured  and  can  only  be  burned  in  oxygen 
under  a  scientifically  produced  intense  heat  of  4000°  F.  While  the  hardest  known 
thing,  the  diamond  is  brittle  and  can  be  crushed  to  a  powder.  It  is  the  only  absolutely 
pure  gem,  being  composed  of  crystallized  carbon  —  all  others  are  composed  of  two  or 
more  elements 


MODERN  AMERICAN  CUT  DIAMONDS 


The  term  " Shibboleth"  has  come  to  mean  a  countersign  or  password  of  a 
secret  society  since  the  Biblical  days,  when  the  Ephraimites,  who  had  been  routed 
by  Jephthah,  tried  to  pass  the  Jordan.  They  were  made  to  pronounce  the  word 
"Shibboleth"  and  were  easily  detected  as  enemies  when  they  pronounced  it 
"Sibboleth." 

Why  do  We  Get  Hungry? 

Hunger  is  a  sensation  partly  arising  in  the  stomach,  since  it  may  be  relieved 
temporarily  by  the  introduction  into  .the  stomach  of  material  which  is  incapable  of 
yielding  any  nutriment  to  the  body.  It  may  be  due  to  a  condition  of  fulness  of  the 
vessels  of  the  stomach,  relieved  by  any  stimulus  which,  acting  on  the  lining  mem- 
brane, induces  a  flow  of  fluid  from  the  glands.  But  it  also  arises  from  a  condition  of 
the  system,  since  the  introduction  of  nutriment  into  the  blood,  apart  altogether  from 
the  stomach,  will  relieve  it.  This  is  also  evident  from  the  fact  that  hunger  may  be 
experienced  even  when  the  stomach  is  full  of  food,  and  when  food  is  supplied  in  abun- 
dance, if  some  disease  prevents  the  absorption  of  the  nourishment,  or  quickly  drains 
it  from  the  blood.  Hunger  may  be  partially  allayed  by  sleep  or  by  the  use  of  narcotics, 
tobacco  and  alcohol,  all  of  which  tend  to  diminish  the  disintegration  of  tissues. 


The  Story  in  the  Modern  Lifting  Magnet* 

Nearly  every  boy  has  had  'among  his  treasured  possessions  a  small  horseshoe 
magnet,  painted  red,  with  bright  ends,  and  has  spent  many  happy  hours  picking  up 
needles,  steel  pins  or  other  small  objects,  and  finally  tired  of  it  because  of  its  small 
lifting  capacity  and  dreamed  of  one  which  would  lift  a  hammer,  or  possibly  even  the 
family  flatiron.  Little  did  he  know  at  that  time  of  the  long  and  interesting  history 
of  magnetism,  the  many  stories  and  superstitions  based  on  its  strange  power;  or  of 
its  intimate  relation  to  the  wonderful  growth  of  electricity  within  the  last  hundred 
years.  His  wildest  dreams  of  lifting  power  would  be  realized  if  he  could  see  a 
modern  electric  lifting  magnet  which  has  only  come  into  use  within  the  last  ten 


FIG. 


years  and  is  meeting  with  instant  approval  in  nearly  every  industry  where  iron  and 
teteel  is  handled  in  any  quantity. 

There  are  three  primary  kinds  of  magnets:  the  lodestone  or  natural  magnets, 
the  artificial  or  permanent  steel  magnet,  and  the  electric  magnet.  At  present  the 
lodestGBe  is  little  used.  The  permanent  steel  magnet  is  used  for  compass  needles, 
as  the  familiar  horseshoe  magnet,  and  in  certain  types  of  electric  machinery.  The 
electric  magnet  forms  a  part  of  nearly  every  kind  of  electrical  machinery  and  is  by 
far  the  most  useful  form  of  the  magnet.  The  modern  high-duty  lifting  magnet  is  a 
form  of  the  electric  magnet. 

The  properties  of  the  lodestone  and  the  permanent  magnet  have  been  known  for 
thousands  of  years,  while  the  electric  magnet  is  a  comparatively  recent  discovery. 

-A11  magnets,  whether  natural,  permanent  or  electric,  possess  the  same  magnetic 
properties.  Every  magnet  has  two  poles  commonly  called  a  north  pole  and  a  south 
pole.  It  has  also  been  found  that  when  a  magnet  is  broken  in  two  each  piece 
becomes  a  magnet  in  itself  with  its  own  north  and  south  poles. 

For  practical  purposes  it  has  been  found  convenient  to  assume  that  magnetism 
consists  of  a  series  of  "lines  of  force"  running  through  the  magnet  from  one  end 
to  the  other  and  back  again  through  the  air.  Each  one  of  these  lines  is  assumed  to 

*  Illustrations  by  courtesy  of  Cutler-Hammer  Mfg.  Co. 

(589) 


590         STORY  IN  THE  MODERN  LIFTING  MAGNET 


have  a  certain  strength,  and  the  power  of  any  magnet  is  determined  by  the  number 
of  lines  of  force  flowing  through  it.  These  lines  are  clearly  shown  in  Fig.  1,  which 
was  made  by  sprinkling  iron  filings  on  a  sheet  of  paper  over  a  bar  magnet,  and  tap- 
ping the  paper  slightly  so  that  the  filings  could  arrange  themselves  along  the  magnetic 
lines  of  force. 

Since  Oersted's  first  electric  magnet  in  1820,  electric  magnets  have  been  made  in 
a  variety  of  forms  and  for  many  different  purposes.     The  simplest  form  of  electric 


FIG.  2 

magnet  is  shown  in  Fig.  2.     It  consists  of  an  iron  bar  with  an  insulated  electric  wire 
wound  around  it  carrying  an  electric  current. 

Another  form  of  the  electric  magnet  is  shown  in  cross-section  in  Fig.  3.  This 
consists  of  a  short  steel  cylinder  with  a  groove  in  its  face  for  the  electric  coil.  The 
modern  lifting  magnet  is  a  highly  specialized  form  of  this  type  of  electric  magnet. 

Although  the  use  of  a  magnet  for  lifting  purposes  seems  to  be  a  very  simple  idea 
and  easily  adopted,  many  difficulties  had  to  be  overcome  and  years  of  experimenting 

done  before  the  lifting  magnet  was  a 
commercial  success.  Nearly  all  electrical 
machinery  may  easily  be  protected  from 
rough  usage  and  moisture,  but  the  lifting 
magnet  must  be  so  strongly  designed  that 
it  will  withstand  the  countless  blows  due 
to  heavy  pieces  of  iron  flying  against  it,  and 
the  banging  it  must  get  against  the  sides 
of  cars,  ships,  etc.  All  light  parts  must  be 
placed  inside  of  the  magnet  or  in  such  a 
position  that  they  can  never  be  knocked 
off  or  broken.  To  moisture  in  some  form 
or  other  nearly  all  lifting-magnet  troubles 
can  be  traced.  Hence  the  importance  of 
an  absolutely  moisture-proof  construction. 
The  result  of  moisture  in  the  interior  of 
a  magnet  is  to  weaken  the  effectiveness  of 
the  installation,  leading  eventually  to  short 
circuits  and  burn-outs.  It  is  necessary 
not  only  to  guard  against  moisture  in  the  form  of  rain,  snow  or  dew,  but  precau- 
tion must  also  be  taken  against  the  entrance  into  the  magnet  of  moisture-laden  air, 
since  moisture  so  introduced  will  presently  be  condensed  in  the  form  of  drops  of  water. 
A  very  natural  question  is,  how  much  such  a  magnet  will  lift.  For  a  given  size 
of  magnet,  the  lifting  capacity  varies  greatly  with  the  nature  of  the  load  handled. 
With  a  magnet  sixty-two  inches  in  diameter,  this  may  vary  from  in  the  neighbor- 


STORY  IN  THE  MODERN  LIFTING  MAGNET        591 


A  43-INCH  MAGNET  HANDLING  PIG  IRON 


592        STORY  IN  THE  MODERN  LIFTING  MAGNET 


hood  of  1,000  pounds  for  light  scrap,  to  from  4,000  to  5,000  pounds  for  pig  iron, 
and  as  high  as  60,000  pounds  for  a  solid  mass  of  steel  or  iron  such  as,  for  instance, 
a  skull-cracker  ball  or  a  casting  affording  surface  for  good  magnetic  contact. 

The  lifting  magnet  has  been 
adopted  for  the  handling  of 
materials  in  all  branches  of  the 
steel  and  iron  industry.  It  is 
used  for  handling  pig  iron,  scrap, 
castings,  billets,  tubes,  rails, 
plates,  for  loading  and  unloading 
cars  and  vessels,  and  for  handling 
skull-cracker  balls  and  miscel- 
laneous magnetic  material. 

Probably  one  of  the  best 
illustrations  of  the  saving  accom- 
plished by  means  of  a  lifting 
magnet  is  its  use  in  unloading 
pig  iron  from  steamers.  By  the 
old  hand  method  it  required 
twenty-eight  men,  two  days  and 
two  nights,  to  unload  a  cargo  of 
4,000,000  pounds.  When  the 
lifting  magnet  was  introduced, 
the  total  time  for  unloading  was 
reduced  to  eleven  hours,  and  was 
done  by  two  men  whose  labor 
consisted  in  manipulating  the 
controllers  in  the  cages  of  the 
cranes,  thus  two  men  and  two 
magnets  did  the  work  of  twenty- 
eight  men  in  less  than  one-fourth 
of  the  time.  Furthermore,  the 
vessels  were  enabled  to  double 
their  number  of  productive  trips. 
In  railroad  work,  lifting 
magnets  are  at  the  present  time 
used  principally  in  scrap  yards 
and  around  store-room  platforms, 
where  it  is  necessary  to  handle 
iron  and  steel  rapidly  and  eco- 
nomically. For  this  class  of  work 
magnets  are  generally  used  in 
connection  with  a  locomotive 
crane,  making  a  self-contained, 
^elf-propelled  unit  which  may 
be  operated  over  the  shop-yard 
tracks  as  required.  The  use  of 
this  combination  has  reduced 
very  greatly  the  cost  of  handling 
both  new  and  scrap  material, 
both  by  reducing  the  actual  expense  of  handling  and  by  enabling  the  material 
to  be  handled  much  more  rapidly  than  was  before  possible. 

Probably  the  best  possible  endorsement  of  the  waterproof  constniction  of  the 


36-iNCH  LIFTING  MAGNET  PICKING  UP  3,500-PouND 
WINDING  DRUM 


STORY  IN  THE  MODERN  LIFTING  MAGNET        593 


modern  lifting  magnet  is  the  fact  that  one  of  them  was  successfully  operated  seventy 
feet  below  the  surface  of  the  Mississippi  River.     At  New  Orleans  a  large  load  of 
kegged  nails  was  raised  from  a  depth  of  seventy  feet.     A  load  of  steel  cotton  ties  was 
raised   near    Natchez    and   a 
barge  of  iron  wire  near  Pitts- 
burgh.    And  these  are  only 
a  few  instances  of  such  work. 

The  magnets  used  in  this 
river  work  were  three  and 
one-half  feet  in  diameter. 
They  were  dropped  into  the 
stream,  the  current  turned  on, 
and  five  or  six  kegs  of  nails 
or  bundles  of  wire  were  raised 
each  trip.  The  nails  weighed 
200  pounds  to  the  keg,  so 
there  were  lifted  each  time, 
from  1,000  to  1,200^  pounds 
from  the  bed  of  the  river. 

The  variety  of  uses  to 
which  these  magnets  may  be  (/: 

put  are  shown  by  the  accom- 
panying illustrations  and  there 
are  many  industries  handling 
iron  and  steel  where  the 
introduction  of  the  modern, 
high-duty  lifting  magnet  will 
effect  a  great  saving  in  time 
and  labor. 

An  amusing  incident 
occurred  recently  in  a  factory 
where  a  large  lifting  magnet 
is  used  in  connection  with  a 
crane  to  carry  pig  iron  through 
the  shop.  Just  as  the  operator 
was  bringing  it  across  the  shop 
unloaded,  he  saw  two  laborers 
ahead  of  him  in  altercation. 
One  held  a  short  pinch  bar  and 
the  other  a  heavy  shovel.  As 
he  approached,  they-  both 
raised  their  tools  like  weapons.  In  a  flash  the  operator  switched  on.  the  current 
and  the  two  men  stood  as  if  transfixed,  hanging  desperately  to  their  weapons  that 
were  held  aloft  as  by  some  giant's  hand.  The  laughter  of  everyone  who  saw  the 
tableau  ended  the  quarrel. 


36-iNCH  MAGNET  HANDLING  HEAVY  CASTINGS 
Note  that  there  is  no  hoisting  tackle  to  be  adjusted. 


Why  is  the  Thistle  the  Emblem  of  Scotland? 

According  to  tradition,  the  Danes  were  attempting  to  surprise  an  encampment 
of  the  Scotch  one  night,  and  had  come  very  near  to  it  without  being  observed,  when 
a  Dane  stepped  on  a  thistle  and  its  sharp  points  made  him  cry  out  with  pain.  The 
Scotch  were  then  awakened  and  succeeded  in  defeating  then-  assailants.  Ever  since 
that  time  the  thistle  has  been  made  the  insignia  of  Scotland. 


594        ANIMALS  IDENTIFIED  ON   CATTLE  RANGES 

How  are  Animals  Identified  on  Cattle  Ranges? 

The  question  of  how  to  mark  animals  started  with  the  first  stock  raisers.  In 
those  days  the  main  object  was  to  provide  some  way  animals  could  be  identified  as  to 
ownerships,  and  many  crude  and  more  or  less  cruel  methods  were  used,  such  as 
notching  or  lopping  off  part  of  the  ear  or  branding  with  a  hot  iron,  burning  a  letter  or 
figure  often  ten  or  twelve  inches  high  on  the  side  of  an  animal.  Branding  in  this  way 


Courtesy  of  Wilcox  &  Harvey  Mfg.  Co.       BRANDS  FOB  IDENTIFICATION 

was  used  mostly  by  cattle  raisers  when  large  herds  were  grazed  on  the  western  plains. 
The  large  brand  made  it  possible  for  cowboys  on  horseback  to  separate  the  cattle  of 
different  owners,  as  the  brand  could  be  seen  at  some  distance. 

As  the  industry  advanced  the  methods  of  marking  improved.  At  the  present 
time  a  mark  in  the  ear  made  of  metal  is  most  commonly  used.  These  are  in  many 
different  styles  such  as  narrow  bands  looped  into  the  edge  or  in  the  form  of  a  button 
fastened  through  the  ear. 

Tags  are  lettered  with  owner's  name  and  address  and  numbered,  which  serves 
not  only  as  a  mark  for  identification  of  ownership  but  as  a  means  of  keeping  a  record 
of  each  animal  by  number;  also  in  making  health  tests  before  shipping  from  one  point 
to  another. 

How  is  Glue  Made? 

The  best  quality  of  glue  is  obtained  from  fresh  bones,  freed  from  fat  by  previous 
boiling,  the  clippings  and  parings  of  ox  hides,  the  older  skins  being  preferred;  but 
large  quantities  are  also  get  from  the  skins  of  sheep,  calves,  cows,  hares,  dogs,  cats, 
etc.,  from  the  refuse  of  tanneries  and  tanning  works,  from  old  gloves,  from  sinews, 
tendons  and  other  offal  of  animal  origin. 

By  a  process  of  cleaning  and  boiling  the  albuminoid  elements  of  the  animal 
matter  are  changed  into  gelatine.  This,  in  a  soft,  jelly-like  state,  constitutes  "size;" 
dried  into  hard,  brittle,  glassy  cakes,  which,  before  use,  must  be  melted  in  hot  water, 
it  forms  the  well-known  glue  of  the  joiner,  etc. 

When  a  solution  is  mixed  with  acetic  or  nitric  acid  it  remains  liquid,  but  still 
retains  its  power  of  cementing;  in  this  state  it  is  called  liquid  glue. 

Marine  glue  is  a  cement  made  by  dissolving  India  rubber  in  oil  of  turpentine 
or  coal-naphtha,  to  which  an  equal  quantity  of  shellac  is  added. 

Why  does  a  Hot  Dish  Crack  if  We  Put  Ice  Cream  in  It? 

If  we  take  a  hot  dish  and  put  ice  cream  in  it,  it  cracks  because  the  dish  when  hot 
has  expanded.  All  the  tiny  particles  that  make  up  the  dish  have  absorbed  some 
heat  and  have  expanded.  When  the  ice  cream  is  put  in  the  particles  composing 
the  inside  of  the  dish  are  cooled  off  and  begin  to  contract,  while  the  outside  particles 
have  not  cooled  and  they  pull  away  from  each  other,  causing  the  dish  to  crack. 


Index 


Abacus,  347 

Acid,  Nitric,  464 

"  Adam's  Apple,"  321 

Adding  Machines,  345 

Addressograph,  364 

Aerial  Railway,  120 

Aerials,  264 

Aerial  Trucks,  451 

Aeroplane  Bombs,  158 

Aeroplanes,  505 

Aestivation,  241 

"After-damp,"  247 

Agate,  49,  149 

Agriculture,  461,  556 

Air,  Liquid,  461 

Air  Currents,  158,  231,  244,  263 

Air-locks,  497 

Air-mines,  390 

Air-pressure,  411,  492 

Airships,  505 

Alcohol,  336,  478 

Alloys,  Gold,  448 

"Almighty  Dollar,"  355 

Alternating  Current,  363 

Amazon,  98 

"American  Turtle,"  9 

Amethysts,  149 

Ammonia,  466 

Ammunition,  75,  94,  158,  398 

Animals,  51,  138,  146,  229,  241,  293,  297 

Anthracite,  244 


Anti-cyclones,  450 
"A-l,'y  136 


Apaches,  147 

Apartment-houses,  First,  334 

Apiaries,  183 

Apples,  136 

Aquarium,  378 

Arack,  214 

Arc  Lamps,  577 

Area  of  Oceans,  169 

Armored  Railway  Car,  470 

Armor-piercing  Shells,  402 

Armor  Plate,  422,  435,  470  478 

Army  Ambulances,  485 

Arrows,  79 

Artesian  Wells,  96 

Artificial  Precious  Stones,  361 

Artillery,  386 

Astronomical  Observatory,  66 

Atmospheric  Conditions,  Recording,  58 

Atmospheric  Nitrogen,  459 

Atmospheric  Pressure,  180 

"Atmospherics,"  264 

Atoms,  324 

Austrian  Guns,  388 

Autographic  Photography,  168 

Automatic  Bowling  Pin  Setters,  360 


Automatic  Machine  Guns,  144,  391 

Automatic  Pistols,  143 

Automatic  Rakers,  565 

Automatic  Rifles,  89 

Automobile  Factory,  518 

Automobile  Guns,  145 

Automobiles,  145, 223, 278, 290, 451, 481, 518, 557 

Auxiliary  Pumps,  Fire,  455 

Bacon,  300 

Bacon,  Roger,  83 

Baggage  Trucks,  545 

Baking  Clay  under  Water,  501 

Balanced  Rations,  298 

Balance-wheels,  65 

Balloons,  Captive,  58,  515 

Balloons,  Fire,  157 

Balloons,  Military,  515 

Balls,  309,  357 

Bascule  Bridges,  466 

Battery  Park,  378 

Battle  of  Four  Elements,  513 

Battleship  Aeroplanes,  506 

Battleships,  22,  266,  480 

Battleship  Turrets,  425 

Beaches,  149,  180 

Bed  Lasting  Machines,  440 

Beef,  297,  299,  458 

Bees,  184 

Beets,  464 

"Before  you  can  say  Jack  Robinson,"  119 

Bell,  Alexander  Graham,  217 

Belting,  118,  535 

Benday  Engravings,  3&2 

Bending,  Illusion,  Stick  in  Water,  308 

"Benedicts,"  149 

Bicycles,  52 

"Big  Trees,"  304 

Billiard  Tables,  309 

Binders,  562 

Biplanes,  505 

Birds,  303 

Blackberries,  White,  316 

Blackfeet  Indians,  148 

Blast  Furnaces,  417 

Bleriot's  Monoplane,  509 

Boats,  Submarine,  9 

Body  Chute,  Auto,  530 

Bolters,  Salt,  476 

Bomb-dropping  Device,  514 

Bombs,  152 

Boots,  436 

Boots,  Rubber,  111,  116 

Boring  Tool,  87 

Bow  and  Arrow,  79 

Bow-drill;  77 

Bowling  Alleys,  357 

B6x  Kites,  59 


£595) 


596 


INDEX 


"Breathing  Bags,"  248 

Breech-loaders,  85 

Bridges,  467 

Briquetting  Machines,  249 

Broadway,  274,  280,  308 

Bud-grafting,  136 

Buffing  Machines,  444 

Buildings,  Large,  221,  234,  274,  280,  540 

Bulbs,  Rubber,  116 

Bullets,  93 

Bull-fights,  362 

Burbank,  Luther,  317 

Bureau  of  Mines  Rescue  Crew,  247 

Burnishing,  Silverware,  260 

Cabinet-making,  310 

Cable,  Hemp,  123 

Cable,  Wire,  132 

Cactus,  Spineless,  316 

Caissons,  504 

Calcium  Carbide,  459 

Calculating  Machines,  345 

Calendering,  109,  116 

Calibers,  Guns,  389 

California,  49,  304,  332 

"Calling-crabs,"  229 

Cameras,  162 

Canal  Navigation,  39 

"Canary-bird  Test,"  Mining,  250 

Candles,  63 

Cannel  Coal,  251 

Cannon,  386 

Carats,  317 

Carbide  Furnaces,  460 

Carbines,  87 

Carbon  Filament  Lamps,  275 

Carboniferous  Strata,  247 

Carburetors,  56 

Carnelians,  149 

Carrier  Pigeons,  216 

Oars,  Armored  Railway,  470 

Cars,  Freight,  545 

Cars,  Motor,  145,  223,  290,  451,  481,  518,  557 

Cars,  Pullman,  544 

Cars,  Sight-seeing,  482 

Cars,  Special  Heavy  Duty  Freight,  424 

'Cars,  Street,  215 

Cartridges,  85,  94 

Casting  Gold  Ingots,  449 

Casting  Machines,  414 

Castings,  424,531 

Catenary  Construction,  284 

Cat's-eye,  149 

Cattle,  297,  458 

Cattle  Food,  298,  317 

Cave  Men,  75 

Cellulose,  450 

Cellulose  Acetate,  168 

Central  Exchanges,  Telephone,  218 

Central  Station,  First  Commercial,  273 

Centrifugal  Extractors,  Honey,  190 

Chafing  Dishes,  Electric,  210 

Chain  Rammers,  407 

Channel  Cementing  Machines,  441 

Chattering.  Teeth,  182 

Chemical  Engines.  454 


Chemical  Fire  Extinguishers,  375,  523 

Chemicals,  Photographic,  162 

Chewing  Gum,  337 

Chicle,  337 

Chimes,  260 

Chimneys,  158 

Chinese  Firecrackers,  150 

Chrome  Leather,  582 

Circuits,  Telephone,  225 

Citrus  Fruits,  331 

"Clam-shell  Dredges,"  491 

Clay,  247,  496 

Clicking  Machines,  438 

Cliff  Dwellings,  334 

Clinking  Glasses,  231 

Clocks,  61,  344 

Clothes,  252 

Coal,  244,  543 

Coast  Defense  Guns,  396 

Cobbler  Shop,  437 

Cocoanuts,  132,  138,  214,  450 

Cod,  216,  325 

Coffee-machines,  Electric,  207 

Coining,  302,  449 

Coir,  132 

Coke,  251,  460 

Cold  Storage,  299,  466 

Color-printing,  289,  382 

Comb,  Honey,  183,  197 

Combination  Engravings,  381 

Combined  Sweep  Rake  and  Stacker,  567 

Combustion,  Spontaneous,  42 

Combustion  Engines,  12,  53 

Compass,  Gyro,  74 

Compasses,  435 

Composition  Billiard  Balls,  315 

Compressed  Air  Construction,  492 

Compressed  Air  Engines,  133 

Conduits,  223 

Conning  Towers,  425 

Continuous  Core  Ovens,  532 

Conveyor  Belts,  535 

Conveyors,  Spiral,  240 

Cooking,  121 

Cooking  Appliances,  205 

Co-operative  Agriculturists,  333 

Copper,  448,  450 

Cordage,  121 

Cork,  385 

Corn  Binders,  562 

Cotton,  464 

Counting,  345 

Coursing,  377 

"Court  of  Love,"  363 

"Cowboys,"  374 

"Cow-trees,"  383 

Crabs,  138,  229 

Cradles,  559 

Cradle  Springs,  55 

Crane  Neck  Hand  Fire  Engine,  452 

Cranes,  Traveling,  536,  543 

Crane  way,  531 

Crank-shafts,  435,  518,  535 

Cravats,  270 

Crops,  458,  556 

Cross-bow,  82      • 


INDEX 


59? 


Cross-section  on  Sixth  Avenue  at  Thirty-third 

Street,  New  York,  503 
Crowns,  384 
Crude  Rubber,  99 
Cruisers,  478 
Cucaracha  Slidr,-,  27 
Cues,  Billiard,  313 
"Culebra  Cut,r  25,  29 
Culverins,  83 
Curfew,  289 
Curing,  Fish,  329 
Meat,  292,  300 
Currying,  583 
Cutlery,  333,  4&i 
Cutting  Shield  Head,  495 
Cyanamid,  458 
Cyanide  Gold  Process,  448 
Cyanometer,  199 
Cyclones,  450 
Cylinder  Machining,  524 
Cylinder  Presses,  173 
Cylindrical  Valve  Machines,  26 

Daguerreotypes,  164 

Dates,  97 

"Davids,"  10 

"Death  Valley,"  315 

Deep  Sea  Monster,  469 

Deer-stalking,  82 

Delivery  Trucks,  481 

Denatured  Alcohol,  478 

Desk  'Phones,  223 

Detonators,  85 

"Deutschland,"  14 

"Deviation  of  the  Compass,"  435 

Diamond  Boring  Machines,  97 

Diamond  Cutting,  584 

Diamonds,  Artificial,  361 

Dictograph,  262 

Diesel  Engines,  12,  252 

Die-sinking,  285 

"Difference  Engine,"  348 

Dipper  Dredges,  491 

Direct  Current,  363 

Dirigibles,  516 

Diving  Bells,  489 

Diving  Equipment,  4ll,  490 

"Divining  Rods,"  199 

"Dog-days,"  310 

"Dog-watch,"  317 

"  Dog-towns,"  42 

Dollar  Sign,  450 

Double  Octuple  Press,  179 

Drawbridges,  467 

Dreams,  182 

Dredges,  23,  27,  490 

Dredging,  Submarine,  15 

Drills,  Steam,  19 

Drinking,  231 

Driving  Shields,  494 

Drop  Forging,  419 

Dry  Docks,  159 

"  Dry  Farming,"  372 

Drying  Machines,  372 

Ducking  Stools,  379 

Ducks,  180 


Ductility  of  Metals,  448,  450 

Dumbwaiters,  237 

Dumping  Trucks,  486 

Dynamo  Room  of  First  Edison  Station,  276 

Dynamos,  262,  274 

Earth,  181,  379 

"Earth-shine,"  356 

Echoes.  574 

Eclipses,  181 

Edge  Trimming  Machines,  443 

Efficiency  Systems,  518 

Electric  Baggage  Trucks,  545 

Control  Boards,  519 

Delivery  Wagons,  278 

Eels,  472 

Locomotives,  22,  24,  541 

Magnets,  589 

Sewing  Machines,  279 

Train  Chart  and  Switch  Control,  283 

Transmission,  261 
Electricity,  Domestic  Utensils,  200 

Progress,  273 

Electrification  of  Railroads,  284,  541 
Electrode  Regulators,  460 
Electro-magnetic  Waves,  263 
Electro-plating,  257 
Elevating  Gears,  Gun,  402 
Elevators,  232 
Emblem  of  Scotland,  593 
Engines,  Combustion,  12,  53 

Compressed  Air,  133 

Diesel,  12,  252 

Electric  Railroad,  541 

Fire,  451 

Gasoline-electric,  214 

Gas-steam,  518 

Kerosene,  556 

Steam  Railroad,  541 
English  Guns,  398 
Engraving,  380 
Ensilage,  271 
Ermine,  356 
Escapements,  68 
Exchanges,  Telephone,  218 
Explosions,  37,  231,  244,  333 
Eyes,  Impressions  of  Vision,  162 
Eyeleting  Machines,  438 

Factory  Hospitals,  521 

Farming,  458,  556 

Fast  Express  Trains,  541 

Federal  Government,  Coal  Lands,  251 

Felspar,  539 

"Fenian  Ram,"  10 

Ferris  Wheel,  342 

Fertilizers,  298,  458,  572 

Fiber,  Manila,  132 

"Fiddler-crabs,"  229 

Field  Guns,  386 

Field  Ring  Forgings,  425 

"Fighting  Fish,"  199 

Figs,  198 

Files,  138 

Films,  162,  537,  578 

Filters,  Salt,  474 


598 


INDEX 


Finger-prints,  74 

Finishing  Shafts,  443 

Fire  Apparatus,  451,  523,  542 

Fire-arms,  75,  139,  386 

Fire-damp,  244 

Fire  Extinguishers,  375,  523 

Fireflies,  161 

Fire-making,  Early,  121 

Firing  Gears,  405 

Fireworks,  150 

Fish,  99,  216,  325,  333,  377,  384,  468 

Fixation  of  Nitrogen  from  the  Air,  458 

Flash  Pans,  83 

Flax,  132 

Flight  of  Projectiles,  398 

Flint,  149 

Flint-lock,  84 

Floating  Docks,  159 

Floating  Islands,  504 

Flowers,  317 

Fluid  Compression,  401 

Flying,  Birds,  303 

"Flying  Dutchman,"  180 

Flying  Machines,  505 

Focus,  Eye  and  Camera,  162 

Fog  Horns,  60 

Folding  Machines,  175,  288 

Food,  Cooking,  121 

Food  Crops,  458,  556 

Foreign  Exchange,  356 

Forestry,  268 

Forging  Press,  418 

Forgings,  Quenching,  532 

Forks,  254 

"Forlorn  Hope,"  306 

"Fossil  Forests,"  50 

Foundry  Methods,  531 

Freckles,  412 

Free  Electric  Current,  278 

Freezing  Points,  336 

French  Guns.  390 

Fresco  Painting,  336 

Front  Axles,  Auto,  527 

Front-drive  Motor  Trucks,  457 

Fruits,  317,  331 

Fuel  Economy,  244 

"Fundamental  Development  Plans,"  222 

"Funditor,"  77 

Fur,  356 

Furnaces,  Steel,  416,  534 

Furnaces,  Carbide,  460 

Fuses,  405 

Gaillard  Cut,  25,  29 

Galileo's  Swinging  Chandelier,  63 

Gamboa  Dike,  37 

Game  Preserves,  270 

Gas,  Coal,  244 

Gas  Meters,  270 

Gas,  Nitrogen,  460 

Gasoline-electric  Cars,  215 

Gas-steam  Engines,  518 

Gatling-guns,  145,  391,  470 

Gatun  Locks,  24,  31-2 

Gear  Wheels,  408 

Gelatine  Films,  152 


Generators,  262,  465 

German  Guns,  398 

"Get  the  Sack,"  169 

Geysers,  41 

Glacier  National  Park,  324 

Glaciers,  322 

Glass,  231.  450 

"Glass  Snakes,"  583 

Glowworms,  161 

Gold,  303,  317,  377,  448 

Goldfish,  377 

Gold  Leaf,  377 

"Goodyear  Welt,"  437,  447 

Grab-buckets,  245 

Grade  Crossing  Elimination,  504 

Grafting,  Bud,  136 

Grain  Binders,  569 

Grain  Drills,  572 

Granite,  540 

Graphophones,  43 

Graphotypes,  368 

Gravity  Conveyors,  240 

"Great  White  Way,"  274 

Greek-fire,  83,  377 

Greyhound,  377 

GriUs,  Electric,  209 

Grinding  Crank  Shafts,  518 

Groundnuts,  241 

Guard  Gates,  31-2 

Gun-carriages,  141,  386 

Gunpowder,  83 

Guns,  75,  139,  386 

Gyroscopes,  72 

Halftone  Engravings,  380 

Ham,  292 

Hammers,  Steam,  533 

Hand  Bombards,  83 

Hand  Presses,  Printing,  172 

Hand-shaking,  308 

Harvesting,  557 

Hay  Loaders,  568 

Header  Binders,  566 

Hearth  Furnaces,  416 

Heat,  315 

Heating  Element,  Electric,  208 

Heating  Pads,  Electric,  211 

Heat-treatment,  532 

Heel-seat  Rounding  Machines,  443 

Helmets,  Diving,  41 

Oxygen,  248 
Hemp,  130 

Highlight  Engravings,  382 
High  Tension  Currents,  262 
Henequen,  130 
Hibernation,  241 
Hides,  580 
Hives,  Bee,  186 
"Hob-nobbing,"  231 
"Hobson's  Choice,"  169 
Hogs,  293 

"Holland"  Under-sea  Boats,  10 
Honey,  183 
Hopper  Dredgers,  490 
Hoppers,  Coal,  246 
Horizon,  121 


INDEX 


599 


Horse-drawn  Fire  Engines,  453 
Horseshoe  Curve,  547 
Hose,  117 

Reels,  456 

Trucks,  451 
Hour  Glasses,  63 
Household  Appliances,  200,  556 
How  a  Newspaper  is  Printed.  172 
How  are  Artificial  Precious  Stones  made?  361 

Cannon  made?  386 

Chewing  Gum  tablets  coated?  342 

Oocoanuts  Used  to  Help  our  Warships?  450 

Composition  bowling  balls  made?  360 

Diamonds  cut?  584 

"Electric  Eels"  Caught?  472 

Explosions  guarded  against  in  mines?  244 

Files  made?  138 

Fireflies  used  as  dress  ornaments?  161 

Fireworks  made?  150 

Glaciers  Formed?  324 

Harbors  Dredged  Out?  491 

Magazines  made?  286 

Oranges  Packed?  331 

Rifles  made?  75 

Sand-dunes  formed?  180 

Sausages  made?  301 

Vessels    handled    while    going    through    the 
Panama  Canal?  39 

Watches  made?  61 

we  able  to  hear  through  Speaking  Tubes?  308 

we  taking  care  of  our  forests  now?  267 
How  big  do  Redwood  Trees  grow?  304 
How  big  is  the  Largest  Adding  Machine  in  the 

world?  354 
How  can  a  factory  make  two  Automobiles  a 

minute?  518 
How  can  we  hear  through  the  Walls  of  a  Room? 

251 

How  can  we  send  Messages  through  the  Air?  263 
How  can  we  travel  in  trains  under  water?  492 
How  cold  is  372°  below  zero?  461 
How  could  a  large  hole  in  a  tunnel  under  water 

be  repaired?  501 

How  deep  is  the  deepest  part  of  the  Ocean?  169 
How  did  Chemical  Fire  Extinguishers  developV 
375 

Men  learn  to  count?  345 

Men  learn  to  eat  pork?  292 

Nodding  the  head  up  and  down  come  to  mean 
"yes"?  149 

the  cooking  of  food  originate?  121 

the  Dollar  Sign  originate?  450 

the  expression  "A-l"  originate?  136 

the   expression    "Before    you    can   say   Jack 
Robinson"  originate?  119 

the  expression  "Forlorn  Hope"  originate?  306 

the  fashion  of  wearing  Cravats  commence?  270 

the  Greyhound  get  his  name?  377 

the  ringing  of  the  Curfew  originate?  289 

the  term  "Cowboys"  originate?  374 

the  term  "Yankee"  originate?  171 

the  wearing  of  crowns  originate?  384 

we  learn  to  tell  time?  61 

your  State  get  its  Name?  243 
How  do  bees  make  honey?  183 

big  buildings  get  their  Granite?  539 


How  do  Calculating  Machines  calculate?  345 

"Carrier  Pigeons"  Carry  Messages?  216 

Chimes  strike  the  Hour?  260 

Elevators  operate?  232 

Fishes  Swim?  384 

Moving  Pictures  get  on  the  Screen?  575 

Peanuts  get  in  the  Ground?  241 

Shoe  Machines  operate?  436 

the  Indians  Live  now?  146 

they  make  Chewing  Gum?  337 

we  know  that  the  Earth  is  Round?  379 
How  does  a  Bird  Fly?  303 

a  Camera  take  a  Picture?  162 

a  Gasoline  Motor  run  an  Electric  Street  Car? 
214 

a  Lifting  Magnet  lift?  589 

a  "Master  Clock"  control  others  by  electric- 
ity? 344 

a  Monorail  Gyroscope  Railway  operate?  72 

a  Siren  Fog  Horn  Blow?  60 

a  Talking  Machine  talk?  43 

an  Artesian  Well  keep  up  its  supply  of  Water? 
96 

Electricity  help  the  Housewife?  200 

Telephone  Development  in  this  country  com- 
pare with  that  abroad?  222 

the  Addressograph  operate?  364 

the  Beach  get  its  Sand?  149 

the  Gas  Meter  measure  your  Gas?  270 

the  New  York  Stock  Exchange  operate?  374 

the  Poisonous  Tarantula  live?  146 
How  far  away  is  the  Sky-line?  121 
How  far  can  a  powerful  Searchlight  send  its 

Rays?  229 

How  has  Electricity  advanced?  273 
How  has  man  helped  nature  give  us  Apples?  136 
How  has  the  Motor  Truck  developed?  481 
How  is  a  Five  Dollar  Gold  Piece  made?  303,  449 

a  Newspaper  printed?  172 

a  Paper  of  Pins  filled?  321 

a  Pool  Table  made?  309 

a  Razor  Blade  made?  491 

a  Teaspoon  Silver-plated?  253 

Die-sinking  done?  285 

Electricity  brought  into  a  House?  262 

Food  taken  from  the  air  by  Electricity?  458 

Fresco  Painting  done?  336 

Gold  Leaf  made?  377 

Leather  tanned?  580 

Lime  Juice  used  in  Curing  Rubber?  110 

Photo-engraving  done?  380 

Pine  Tar  made?  129,  134 

Rope  made?  121 

the  exact  color  of  the  Sky  determined?  199 

the  Weather  Man  able  to  predict  tomorrow's 

Weather?  58 
Howitzers,  388 

How  large  are  Molecules?  324 
How  long  does  it  take  "Hello"  to  reach  'Frisco 
from   New  York  on  the  Transcontinental 
Line?  228 
How  many  Post  Offices  are  there  in  the  U.  S.? 

218 

How  much  Gold  in  a  14-carat  Ring?  317 
How  much  is  a  Duodecillion?  354 
How  much  Salt  do  we  each  use  a  year?  478 


600 


INDEX 


How  much  silver  is  there  in  "Sterling"  ware? 

260 

How  the  Self-loading  Pistol  developed,  139 
How  waa  Vulcanizing  discovered?  105,  115 
How  were  Motorcycles  first  made?  52 
Hudson  River  Tubes,  493 
Hunger,  588 
Hunting,  75 
Hybridization,  317 
Hydraulic  Compressors,  401 

Forging  Presses,  418 

Jacks,  497 

Swinging  Arms,  494 
Hydroaeroplanes,  507 
Hydroelectric  Station,  20 
"Hypo,'  163 

Ice,  322 

Illumination,  Electric,  273 

Immersion  Heaters,  Electric,  211 

Imoerfections  in  Diamonds,  586 

Incandescent  Lamps,  275 

Indians,  146,  336 

Inner-tubes,  117 

Inseam  Trimming  Machines,  440 

Insole  Tacking  Machines,  437 

Installing  Motors,  Auto,  528 

Instruments,  Range-finding,  403 

Insulated  Wire,  118 

Interior  Transverse  Fissures,  344 

Iron,  413 

Irons,  Electric,  200 

Isinglass,  216 

Istle,  132 

Italian  Guns,  389 

Ivory,  314 

Jaggery,  214 
Jasper,  49,  149 
"Jeweler's  Gold,"  448 
Jewels,  Synthetic,  361 

Kerosene  Engines,  556 

Tractors,  561 
"Kick  the  Bucket,"  171 
"King  can  do  no  wrong,'  466 
Knives,  Table,  260,  333 
Guns,  398 


Lacing  Machines,  438 

Ladder  Dredges,  23,  27,  490 

Ladders,  Fire,  451 

"Lake"  Submarines,  9 

Land-crabs,  138 

Lard,  301 

Latten  Spoons,  254 

League  Island  Navy  Yard,  160 

Leather,  580 

Lemons,  331 

Lifting  Magnets,  589 

Lightning  Bugs,  161 

Lights,  Electric,  273 

Lignite,  251 

Lilies,  Violet-odored,  317 

Limit  Switches,  26 

Line  Engravings,  381 


Liquid  Air  Plant,  461 

"Liquid  Fire,;'  377 

Listing  Machines,  350 

Lizards,  583 

Llama,  99 

Loading  Platforms,  531 

Lobsters,  384 

Lock  Gate  Operating  Machinery,  34 

Locomotive  Building,  543 

Locomotives,  22,  24,  541 

Long-bow,  80 

Loose  Nailing  Machines,  443 

Low  Tension  Currents,  262 

Lumbering,  306 

"Lump  in  the  Throat,"  308  " 

"Lynching,"  355 

Machine  Guns,  142,  391,  470 

Magazines,  286 

Magnets,  589 

Mailing  System,  Magazines,  289 

Manila  Fiber,  132 

Manure  Spreaders,  572 

Map,  Tree-planting  Regions  of  U.  S.,  269 

Marsh-gas,  244 

Masonic  Signs,  262 

"Master  Clocks,"  344 

Matchlock,  83 

Matrix-drying  Machines,  179 

"Measurer  of  Blue,"  199 

Meat,  292,  299 

Mechanical  Starter,  Auto,  529 

Megaphones,  308 

Merchant  Submarine  Liners,  14 

Mercury,  336 

Mer  de  Glace,  322 

Meters,  Gas,  270 

Mica,  203 

Micrometric  Regulators,  67 

Military  Air  Tractors,  506 

Milk,  383 

Mine-planting  Submarines,  11 

"Mineralite"  Balls,  360 

Mining,  Coal,  244 

Mining,  Gold,  448 

Mining,  Iron,  413 

Mint,  302 

Mobilization,  228 

Molds,  Steel,  431,  531 

Molecules,  324 

Monoplanes,  509 

Monorail  Railways,  73,  520 

Moon,  181,  356 

Mortars,  397 

"Mother  of  Pearl,"  385 

Motion  Pictures,  Assembling  Films.  537 

Projecting,  575 

Taking,  536 

Motor  Assembling,  Auto,  525 
Motorcycles,  52 
Motor  Delivery  Vans,  58 

Fire  Apparatus,  451 
"Motor-paced  Tandems,  55 
Motors,  Electric,  262 

Gasoline-Electric,  215 
Motor  Trucks,  223,  451,  481,  557 


INDEX 


601 


Mountain  Guns,  390 

Mt.  Rainier,  323 

Mt.  Weather,  60 

Moving-stairways,  238 

Mowing  Machines,  561 

Multiple  Switchboards,  Telephone,  220 

Muskets,  88 

Muzzle-energy,  Giant  Guns,  398 

Nailing  Machines,  441 
Names  of  States,  243 
" Napier's  Rod,"  348 
"Nautilus,"  10,  491 
Naval  Guns,  387 
Navy  Yards,  161 
Neckties,  270 
Negatives,  163 
Nets,  Fish,  328 
Newspapers,  121,  172,  282 
New  York  Sky-line,  493 
New  Zealand  Flax,  132 
Niagara  Falls,  463 
"Nine-pins,"  357 
Nitrate  of  Soda,  459 
Nitric  Acid,  464 
Nitrogen,  458 

Nitrogen  Fixation  Ovens,  462 
"No,"  149 
Nuts,  Cocoanuts,  214 

Oats,  569 

Observation  Balloons,  515 

Oceans,  169 

Oil,  Cod-liver,  216 

Oil  Cushion  Buffers,  235 

Oil-tempering,  420 

"Old  Moon  in  the  New  Moon's  Arms,"  356 

Opals,  49,  149 

Open-hearth  Furnaces,  416 

Oranges,  332 

Ordnance,  386 

Outsole  Rapid  Lockstitch  Machines,  446 

Ovens,  Continuous  Core,  532 

Drying  Painted  Cars,  547 

Electric,  210 

Overhead  Monorail  Systems,  520 
Oxygen  Reviving  Apparatus,  248 
Oynx,  149 
Oyster  Dredging  Apparatus,  16 

Painting,  Fresco,  336 
Palms,  97,  214 
Panama  Canal,  17 
Panama  City,  35 
Panama-Pacific  Exposition,  230 
Patent  Leather,  583 
Peanuts,  242 

Pearl  Fishing  Equipment,  16 
Pearls,  385 

Imitation,  361 
"Pebble  Board,"  345 
Pedro  Miguel  Locks,  22 
Penetrating  Powers  of  Projectiles,  398 
Pennsylvania  Station,  546 
Percolators,  Electric,  206 
Percussion  Fuses,  405 


Periscopes,  13 

Petrified  Forests,  50 

Phantom  Circuits,  225 

Philippine  Carts,  131 

Photo-engraving,  380 

Photography,  162,  536 

Pigeons,  216 

Pig  Iron,  429 

Pigs,  293 

Pike's  Peak,  557 

Pine  Tar,  129,  134 

Pins,  318 

Pirates,  150 

Pistols,  139 

Piston  Machining,  522 

Plants,  317 

Plating,  Electro,  257 

"Plumcot,"  317 

Pole  Lathes,  87 

Poles,  Telephone,  222 

Pool,  309 

Pork,  292 

Potato-diggers,  242 

Power  House,  Niagara  Falls,  465 

Power  Stations,  278,  519 

Prairie  Dogs,  42 

Predictors,  Range,  403 

Printing,  Color,  289 

Printing-presses,  172,  282,  286 

Projectile  Forging,  419 

Projectiles,  158,  398 

Projecting  Machines,  576 

Proving  Grounds,  399 

Prunes,  Stoneless,  317 

Pulling-over  Machines,  439 

Pullman  Cars,  544 

Pyro,  163 

Pyrometers,  534 

Pyrotechnics,  150 

Quarry,  540 

Quenching  Steel  Forgings,  532 

Radio  Telephone  and  Telegraph,  263 
Railroads,  344,  424,  470,  492,  541 
Rails,  Steel,  343 
Railways,  Aerial,  120 

Monorail,  73,  520 
Rakes,  567 
Rammers,  Gun,  407 
Range  Finders,  403 
Ranges,  Electric,  213 
Rapid-fire  Guns,  144,  391,  470 
Rasps,  138 
Razor  Blades,  491 
Reapers,  562 
Reaping  Hooks,  557 
Rear  Axle  Assembling,  Auto,  523 
Record  Making,  Graphophone,  44,  4"? 
Redwood,  272,  305 
Refraction,  308 
Refrigerating  Machinery,  296 
Return  Chutes,  Bowling  BaU,  357 
Revolvers,  139 
Rifles,  75 
Rock-boring,  97 
Pock-crystal,  49,  149,  539 


602 


INDEX 


Rockets,  151 

Rock  Salt,  474 

Roentgen  Rays,  169 

Rolling  Bridges,  466 

Roman  Candles,  156 

Rope,  121 

Rounding  and  Channeling  Machines,  444 

Rubber,  98 

Safe  Deposit  Vaults,  428 

Safety  Crew,  Mines,  248 

Salt,  473 

Salt  Fish,  330 

Sand,  149,  180,  247 

Sand-dunes,  180 

Sandwiches,  119 

Sausages,  292  . 

Scythes,  558 

Searchlight  Projectiles,  158 

Searchlights,  229 

Self-binding  Harvesters,  568 

Semi-submersible  Wrecking  Apparatus,  1 

Set  Pieces,  Pyrotechnic,  154 

Sewing  Machines,  279 

Shaking  Hands,  308 

Sheep-growing,  252 

Sheffield  Plate,  256 

Shells,  409 

"Shibboleth,"  588 

Shoes,  436 

Shoes,  Rubber,  115 

Shoe  Treeing  Machines,  446 

Shot-guns,  92 

"Showing  the  White  Feather,"  231 

Shutters,  Motion  Picture  Machine,  578 

"Side-cars,"  56 

Siege-howitzers,  388 

Sight-seeing  Cars,  482 

S:lhouettes,  163 

Silica,  149  , 

Silos,  271 

Silver  Plating,  253 

Shiking  of  the  "Bluecher,"  479 

Siren  Horns,  60 

Sisal,  130 

Skins,  580 

Skiving  Machines,  437 

Sky,  180,  199 

Sky-line,  121 

Sky-rockets,  150 

Slaughter-houses,  295 

Sling-shot,  78 

Smiling,  412 

Smoking,  Meat,  292 

Snakes,  ll  Glass,"  583 

Soap,  298 

Sole  Laying  Machines,  441 

Sole  Leather,  580 

Sole  Leveling  Machines,  441 

Scroban,  345 

Sound.  47,  251,  333,  574 

Speaking  Tubes,  308 

Spiders,  51,  146 

Spineless  Cactus,  317 

Spinning,  Hemp,  124 

Spiral  Chutes,  240 


Spontaneous  Combustion,  42 
Spoons,  253 
Sprinkler  Systems,  523 
Stabilizers,  74 
Stamping  Machines,  444 
"Standard  Gold,"  448 
"Standard  Yard,"  61 
States,  243 

Stations,  Railroad,  546 
Statue  of  Liberty,  378 
Steam  Drills,  19 

Dynamos,  275 

Fire  Engines,  452 

Hammers,  533 

Harvesters,  560 

Shovels,  28,  30,  38 

Velocipedes,  52 

Steel,  333,  343,  413,  470,  491,  532 
"Sterling,"  260 
Sting,  Bee,  187 

Stitch  and  Upper  Cleaning  Machines,  445 
Stitch  Separating  Machines,  443 
Stoat,  356 

Stock  Exchanges,  373 
Stockyards,  297 
Stoneless  Prunes,  317 
Story  in  a  Billiard  Table,  309 

Bowling  Alley,  357 

Box  of  California  Oranges,  331 

Chemical  Fire  Extinguisher,  375 

Giant  Cannon,  386 

Honey-comb,  183 

Pin,  318 

Rifle,  75 

Sausage,  292 

Silver  Teaspoon,  253 

Watch,  61 
Story  in  Diamond-cutting,  584 

Elevators  and  Escalators,  232 

Firecrackers  and  Sky-rockets,  150 

Photo-engraving,  380 
Story  in  the  making  of  a  Pair  of  Shoes,  436 

making  of  a  Magazine,  286 

making  of  a  Picture,  162 

Modern  Lifting  Magnet,  589 

Printing  of  a  Newspaper,  172 

Talking  Machine,  43 

Telephone,  217 
Story  of  a  Deep  Sea  Monster,  468 

a  Piece  of  Chewing  Gum,  337 

America's  First  Horseless  Carriage,  290 

an  Automobile  Factory,  518 

an  Up-to-date  Farm,  556 

Coal  Mining,  244 

Electricity  in  the  Home,  200 

Leather,  580 

Rope,  121 

Rubber,  98 

Salt,  473 

Self-loading  Pistols,  139 

the  Addressograph,  364 

the  Advance  of  Electricity,  273 

the  Big  Redwood  Trees,  304 

the  Building  of  a  Silo,  271 

the  Calculating  Machine,  345 

the  Growth  of  the  Motor  Truck,  481 


INDEX 


603 


Story  of  the  Motion  Picture-Projecting  Machine, 
575 

the  Motorcycle,  52 

the  Panama  Canal,  17 

the  Submarine,  9 

the  Taking  of  Food  from  the  Air,  458 

the  Tunnels  Under  the  Hudson  River,  492 

the  Wireless  Telegraph,  263 
Stoves,  Electric,  208 
Straightening  Crank  Shafts,  533 
Street  Cars,  Gasoline,  Electric,  215 
Submarines,  9 
Subway  Construction,  283 
Suction  Dredges,  23,  27 
Sugar  Beets,  464 
Sugar  Cane,  459 
Sugar-coating  Machines,  338 
Sulphuric  Ether,  336 
Sun,  181 
Sun  Dials,  61 
Swine,  293 
Swing  Bridges,  466 
Switchboards,  519 
Synthetic  Precious  Stones,  361 

Table  Appliances,  205 

Table-ware,  253,  333 

Tack-pulling  and  Resetting  Machines,  440 

Taking  Food  from  the  Air,  458 

Talking  Machines,  43 

Tanning,  580 

Tawing,  583 

Tar,  Pine,  129,  134 

Tarantulas,  146 

Teeth,  Chattering,  182 

Telegraph,  Wireless,  263 

Telephone,  217 

Telephone,  Wireless,  226 

Temperature,  315 

Temperature  Regulation,  Foundry  Furnaces,  534 

Tension  Spokes,  342 

Third  Rails,  283 

Thistle,  593 

Threshers,  560 

Throat,  308 

Time,  61 

" Times  Square,"  274 

Tip-punching  Machines,  439 

Tires,  Automobile,  117 

"Tirth's  Stainless  Steel,"  333 

Toasters,  Electric,  205 

Tobacco,  458 

Torpedo  Guns,  404 

Torpedoes,  Gyroscope  Equipment,  74 

Torpedoes,  Toys,  153 

Tortoises,  171 

Totem  Poles,  149 

" Touching  Glasses,"  231 

Towline,  126 

Traction  Elevators,  233 

Tractors,  Kerosene,  561 

Train  Chart,  283 

Trains,  541 

Trans- Atlantic  Submarine  Navigation,  14 

Transcontinental  Line,  225 

Transmission,  Electric,  261,  363 


Transmission  Covers,  Auto,  526 
Traveling  Belt  Conveyors,  535 
Traveling  Cranes,  536 
Trawls,  327 
Trees,  Apple,  136 

Buried.  247 

Cocoaiiut,  214 

Cow,  383 

Date,  97 

Fig,  198 

Forestry,  267 

Petrified,  49 

Redwood,  304 

Rubber,  108 
Trench  ArtiUery,  390 
Tri-cars,  55 
Trinity  Church,  308 
Trucks,  Electric,  278 

Electric  Baggage,  545 

Fire,  451 

Motor,  223,  451,  481,  557 
"Tune  the  old  cow  died  of,"  539 
Tunneling  Shields,  494 
Tunnels,  492,  520 
Turbine  Generators,  465 
Turrets,  426 
Twine  Binders,  570 
Twin  Edge  Setting  Machines,  445 
Type,  172 

Upper-trimming  Machines,  439 

Under-water  Boats,  9 

Under-water  Construction,  492 

U.    S.    Battleship    "Arizona,"    also    "Nevada3 

and  "Oklahoma"  Type,  266 
U.  S.  Battleship  "Mississippi,"  160 
U.  S.  Battleship  "Ohio,"  22 
U.  S.  Guns,  386 
U.  S.  Mint,  Philadelphia,  449 

Vacuum  Cleaners,  Electric,  212 

Vacuum  Dryers,  107,  112 

Vamp  Creasing  Machines,  446 

Vanadium  Steel,  533 

Vats,  Tanning,  581 

Vaults,  427 

Ventilating  Systems,  221,  247,  298,  520 

Vessels,  Fishing,  325 

Veterinarians,  Government,  298 

Vulcanizing,  105,  115 

Wall  Street,  307 

Washington  Union  Station,  546 

Watches,  61 

Watches,  Nautical,  317 

Water,  308,  333,  336,  411 

Water  Bottles,  118 

Water  Clocks,  63 

"Water-finders,"  199 

Water  Fireworks,  158 

Water-power,  461 

Waterproofing,  106 

Water-towers,  457 

Weather  Bureau,  58 

Weight  of  Projectiles,  398 

Wells,  96,  199 


604 


INDEX 


Wells,  Salt,  473 

Welt  and  Turn  Machines,  445 

Welt  Lasting  Macliines,  440 

Wetterhorn  Mountain,  120 

What  Animals  are  the  best  Architects?  51 

What  are  Cyclones?  450 

Dreams?  182 

Dry  Docks  like?  159 

"Fighting  Fish"?  199 

Petrified  Forests?  49 

White  Blackberries  like?  317 
What  causes  a  Lump  in  a  Person's  Throat?  308 

an  Echo?  574 

Floating  Islands?  504 
What  do  we  mean  by  an  "Eclipse"?  181 

"Deviation  of  the  Compass"?  435 

"Hobson's  Choice"?  169 

the  "Flying  Dutchman"?  180 

"The  Old  Moon  in  the  New  Moon's  Arms"? 

356 

What  does  the  biggest  Fish  ever  caught  look 
like?  468 

expression    "Showing    the    White    Feather" 
come  from?  231 

Sheep-Grower  get  for  the  wool  in  a  Suit  of 

Clothes?  252 

What  Family  has  over  9,000,000  members?  216 
What  happens  when  Animals  Hibernate?  241 
What  is  a  Deep  Sea  Diver's  Dress  like?  411 

Dictagraph?  262 

Diesel  Engine  like?  252 

Diving  Bell?  489 

"Divining  Rod"?  199 

Drawbridge  like  Today?  466 

"Drying  Machine"  like?  372 

Game  Preserve?  270 

Geyser?  40 

"Glass  Snake"?  583 

Mexican  Bull-fight  like?  363 

Silo?  271 
What  is  an  Aerial  Railway  like?  120 

Armored  Railway  Car  like?  370 

"Electric  Eel"?  472 

Electro-magnet?  317 

up-to-date  Farm  like?  556 
What  is  Cork?  385 

"Dry  Farming"?  372 

Forestry  Work,  267 

Rubber?  98 

Spontaneous  Combustion?  42 

"Standard  Gold"?  448 

What  is  the  difference  between  a  Cruiser  and  a 
Battleship?  478 

difference  between   "Alternating"  and   "Di- 
rect" Current?  363 

Greatest   Discovery   of  the   last   twenty-five 
years?  458 

Hottest  place  in  the  U.  S.?  315 

Natural  Color  of  Goldfish?  377 

principle  of  "Foreign  Exchange"?  356 
What  kind  of  a  Crab  Climbs  Trees?  138 

Dogs  are  Prairie  Dogs?  42 

Steel  Knives  do  not  Stain  or  Rust?  333 
What  makes  a  Chimney  Smoke?  158 

a  Stick  seem  to  Bend  in  Water?  308 

our  Teeth  Chatter?  182 


What  Metals  can  be  Drawn  into  Wire  best?  450 
What  Progress  has  been  made  toward  Universal 
Service  since  the  opening  of  the  Transcon- 
tinental Telephone  Line?  226 
What  started   the   habit  of  Touching  Glasses 

before  drinking?  231 
What  was  the  "Court  of  Love"?  363 

the  origin  of  Masonic  Signs?  262 
What  were  "Ducking  Stools"?  379 

Hour  Glasses  originally  used  for?  63 

the  First  Apartment  Houses  in  this  country? 

336 

When  does  a  Tortoise  move  quickly?  171 
When  is  Exchange  at  Par?  356 
When  was  "Liquid  Fire"  first  used  in  Warfare? 
377 

New  York  the  Capital  of  this  Country?  379 
Where  are  Fireflies  used  for  Domestic  Lighting? 
161 

Milk-pails  filled  from  Trees?  383 
Where  did  the  Ferris  Wheel  get  its  name?  342 
Where  do  Dates  come  from?  97 

Figs  come  from?  199 

Pearls  come  from?  385 
Where  does  Ermine  come  from?  356 

Rubber  come  from?  98 
White  Blackberries,  316 
"White  Elephant,"  435 
Who  discovered  Rubber?  98 

the  Slide  Rule  Principle?  348 
Who  invented  Arms  and  Ammunition?  76 
Who  made  the  first  American  Automobile?  290 

the  first  practical  Talking  Machine?  43 
Why  are  Finger-prints  used  for  Identification? 

74 

Why  are  they  called  "Newspapers"?  121 
Why  are  Windows  broken  by  Explosions?  231 
Why  do  Lobsters  Change  Colors?  384 

some  of  us  have  Freckles?  412 
Why  do  they  call  it  "Shibboleth"?  588 

call  them  "Fiddler-crabs"?  229 

have  a  Dog-watch  on  Shipboard?  317 

say  "The  King  can  do  no  Wrong"?  466 
Why    do    we    always    shake    Hands    with    our 

'Right  Hand?  308 
Why  do  we  call  a  Man  "A  Benedict"  when  he 

Marries?  149 
Why  do  we  call  it  "Denatured  Alcohol"?  478 

"Hob-Nobbing"?  231 

the  "Adam's  Apple"?  321 

the  "Almighty  Dollar"?  355 
Why  do  we  call  them  "Artesian  Wells"?  96 

"Cravats"?  270 

"Dog-days"?  301 

"Sandwiches"?  119 

"X-Rays"?  169 

Why  do  we  call  32°  above  Zero  "Freezing"?  336 
Why  do  we  Count  in  Tens?  345 
Why  do  we  Dream?  182  . 

get  Hungry?  588 

say  "a  White  Elephant"?  435 

say  "Get  the  Sack"?  169 

say  "Kick  the  Bucket"?  171 

say  "the  Tune  that  the  Old  Cow  Died  of"?  539 

Smile  when  we  are  Pleased?  412 
Why  does  a  Duck's  Back  shed  Water?  180 


INDEX 


605 


Why  does  a  Lightning  Bug  light  her  Light?  16] 

rope  cling  together?  136 

shaking  the  head  mean  "No"?  149 
Why  doesn't  the  sky  ever  Fall  Down?  180 
Why  is  it  called  "Battery  Park"?  379 

"Death  Valley"?  315 

"Lynching"? '355 
Why  is  it  necessary  to  keep  unusually  quiet 

"when  fishing?  333 

Why  is  the  Thistle  the  Emblem  of  Scotland?  593 
Why  is  there  always  a  soft  spot  in  a  cocoanut 

shell?  214 
Why  is  "Wall  Street"  known  round  the  World? 

308 

Why  were  rubber  trees  called  "Siphonia"?  108 
Windows,  231 
Wire,  118,  132 
Wire-drawing,  450 
Wireless  Telephone  and  Telegraph,  263 


Wire  Stitching  Machines,  Magazines,  287 
Wood,  Apple,  136 

Cocoanut,  214 

Redwood,  272,  304 
Wool,  252 

Woolworth  Building,  234 
Wrapper,  Leaf  Tobacco,  458 
Wrecking  Apparatus,  16 

"X"-Rays,  169 

X-Ray  View  of  a  New  York  Street  Crossing,  503 
X-Ray  View  of  Underground  Tunnel  Construe  • 
tion,  502 

"Yankee,"  171 
Yard  Measure,  61 
"Yes,"  149 

"Zeppelins,"  511 


Acknowledgment 


The  Editor  wishes  to  express  his  gratitude  and  appreciation  to  the  following, 
to  whom  he  is  indebted  for  much  valuable  assistance  in  the  form  of  illustrations  and 
special  information: 

ADDRESSOGRAPH  Co. 

"THE  AMERICAN  BOY." 

AMERICAN  CHICLE  Co. 

AMERICAN  CYANAMID  Co. 

AMERICAN  LAFRANCE  FIRE  ENGINE  Co. 

AMERICAN  LOCOMOTIVE  Co.  ; 

"AMERICAN  MAGAZINE." 

AMERICAN  PIN  Co. 

AMERICAN  TELEPHONE  AND  TELEGRAPH  Co. 

ARMOUR  &  Co. 

BALDWIN  LOCOMOTIVE  WORKS. 

"BALTIMORE  AMERICAN." 

BETHLEHEM  STEEL  Co. 

JAMES  BOYD  &  BROTHER,  INC. 

BRUNSWICK-BALKE-COLLENDER    Co. 

BURROUGHS  ADD  NG  MACHINE  Co, 

CALIFORNIA  FRUIT  GROWERS'  EXCHANGE. 

CALIFORNIA  REDWOOD  ASSOCIATION. 

CHESAPEAKE  AND  POTOMAC  TELEPHONE  Co. 

COLT'S  PATENT  FIRE  ARMS  MANUFACTURING  Co. 

COLUMBIA  GRAPHOPHONE  Co. 

COLUMBIAN  ROPE  Co. 

COMMON  SENSE  GUM  Co. 

CONSOLIDATED  FIRE  WORKS  COMPANY  OF  AMERICAO 

CURTIS  AEROPLANE  Co. 

CURTIS  PUBLISHING  Co. 

CUTLER-HAMMER  MANUFACTURING  Co. 

DIAMOND  CRYSTAL  SALT  Co. 

G.  M.  DODGE  Co. 

EASTMAN  KODAK  Co. 

ENDICOTT,  JOHNSON  &  Co. 

"THE  FIELD" 

"FIRE  AND  WATER  ENGINEERING." 

FORD  MOTOR  Co. 

CvATCHEL  &  MANNING. 

GENERAL  ELECTRIC  Co. 

GENERAL  MOTORS  TRUCK  Co. 

GLOUCESTER  (MASS.)  BOARD  OF  TRADE. 

B.  F.  GOODRICH  Co. 

HAYNES  AUTO  Co. 

HENDEE  MANUFACTURING  Co. 

R.  HOE  &  Co. 

(6075 


608  ACKNOWLEDGMENT 

GEORGE  A.  HORMEL  &  Co. 

HOTPOINT  ELECTRIC  HEATING  Co. 

HUDSON  AND  MANHATTAN  RAILROAD  Co. 

INDIANA  STEEL  Co. 

INGERSOLL-RAND  Co. 

INTERNATIONAL  HARVESTER  COMPANY  OF  AMERICA. 

INTERNATIONAL  SILVER  Co. 

JACOBS  &  DAVIES,  ENGINEERS. 

LAKE  TORPEDO  BOAT  Co. 

McCLURE   Co. 

MERGANTHALER  LINOTYPE  Co. 

MONROE  CALCULATING  MACHINE  Co. 

NEW  YORK  CENTRAL  RAILROAD  Co. 

NEW  YORK  EDISON  Co. 

NIAGARA  FALLS  POWER  Co. 

OTIS  ELEVATOR  Co. 

THE  PANAMA  CANAL,  WASHINGTON  OFFICE* 

PENNSYLVANIA  RAILROAD  Co. 

THE  PHILADELPHIA  MUSEUMS. 

PLYMOUTH  CORDAGE  Co. 

NICHOLAS  POWER  Co. 

PYRENE  MANUFACTURING  Co. 

"  RAIL  WAY  AGE  GAZETTE." 

MR.  GEORGE  A.  READING. 

REMINGTON  ARMS-UNION  METALLIC  CARTRIDGE  Co, 

A.  I.  ROOT  ^o. 

"SCIENTIFIC  AMERICAN." 

"SCRIBNER'S  MAGAZINE." 

STANDARD  STEEL  CAR  Co. 

CAPT.  CHARLES  H.  THOMPSON. 

MR.  CHARLES  L.  TROJT. 

MR.  HAROLD  L.  TUERS. 

UNITED  SHOE  MACHINERY  Co. 

UNITED  STATES  RUBBER  Co. 

WALTHAM  WATCH  Co. 

WESTINGHOUSE  Co. 

WINCHESTER  REPEATING  ARMS  Co. 

WILCOX  &  HARVEY  MFG.  Co. 

"WINSTON'S  CUMULATIVE 


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